04.20.23

Senate Judiciary Committee Advances Nominations Of Jeffrey Cummings & Lashonda Hunt To Serve As District Court Judges For The Northern District Of Illinois

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today released the following statement after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance the nominations of Jeffrey Cummings and LaShonda Hunt to serve as District Court Judges on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois:

“We are pleased that the Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced the nominations of Judge Jeffrey Cummings and Judge LaShonda Hunt to fill judicial vacancies for the Northern District of Illinois. They both bring strong qualifications and a wealth of experience that will strengthen our federal bench. We will continue to guide their nominations through until they are confirmed by the Senate.”

In October 2021, the Senators announced that they would begin accepting applications from those interested in serving as a Federal District Court Judge in the Northern District of Illinois. The Senators were assisted by a screening committee whose task was to review and vet District Court candidates and advise the Senators regarding the candidates’ qualifications and fitness for the position. 

In December 2021, the Senators sent a letter to the White House recommending seven candidates for President Biden’s consideration for current and future vacancies on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, including Jeffrey Cummings and LaShonda Hunt.

Now that Judge Cummings’ and Judge Hunt’s nominations have advanced out of Committee, their nominations will next receive a vote by the full Senate.

The nominees’ biographies from the White House are below: 

Jeffrey Cummings: Judge Jeffrey Cummings has served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Illinois since 2019. Judge Cummings was previously co-managing partner at Miner, Barnhill & Galland, P.C., where he worked from 1989 to 2019. Judge Cummings served as a law clerk for Judge Ann Claire Williams on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois from 1987 to 1989. He received his J.D. from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, cum laude, in 1987, and his B.A., with high honors, from Michigan State University in 1984. 

LaShonda Hunt: Judge LaShonda A. Hunt has served as a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Northern District of Illinois since 2017. Judge Hunt previously served as General Counsel for the Illinois Department of Central Management Services in 2016 and as Chief Legal Counsel for the Illinois Department of Corrections from 2015 to 2016. Prior to that, she served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois from 2003 to 2005 and then again from 2010 to 2015. Judge Hunt was Assistant General Counsel at Exelon Company from 2007 to 2009 and Regulatory Outreach Manager at Com Ed, a subsidiary of Exelon, from 2009 to 2010. She also worked as a schools project director for the Just the Beginning Foundation from 2006 to 2007, a staff attorney for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1998 to 2001, and an associate at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP from 1995 to 1998. Judge Hunt served as a law clerk for Judge William J. Hibbler on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois from 2001 to 2003. She received her J.D. from the University of Michigan in 1995, and her B.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1992.

 

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