Stuart E. Palmer

Justice Stuart E. Palmer was born in Chicago on June 20, 1954. A graduate of the Chicago public schools, Justice Palmer went on the receive his B.A. degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa) in 1976 and his J.D. degree from the Northwestern University School of Law in 1979.

Justice Palmer was appointed as a Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County effective January of 1994. He went on to be elected to that position later that year and was retained in 2000 and 2006. He served briefly in the First Municipal District and then in the Criminal Division from July 1994 until December 2005. He served in the Chancery Division from December 2005 to January 2012. Justice Palmer was assigned to the Appellate Court of Illinois by the Illinois Supreme Court effective January 6, 2012.

Justice Palmer has served on the Illinois Supreme Court’s Committee on Education, where he was Chair of the Criminal Law Benchbook Committee.  He has also served on the Special Supreme Court Committee on Capital Cases and on the faculty for that committee’s capital case training seminars, as well as the Legislation Committee and the Special Committee on Courthouse Security.  Judge Palmer is also a Science and Technology Fellow of the Advanced Science and Technology Adjudication Resource Center (ASTAR) and was awarded a Diploma of Judicial Skills from the American Academy of Judicial Education.  He is a member of the American College of Business Court Judges. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Illinois Judges Association.