Bolton, John M.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED OR HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION by most of bar associations and recommended by all members of the Alliance of Bar Association For Judicial Screening in 2001. "The candidate has extensive experience in criminal and civil law and is highly regarded for his legal knowledge and fine temperament." (Chicago Bar Association finding)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE (31 YEARS): Cook County Assistant State's Attorney from 1969 to August 1977 - Chief of Criminal Appeals for almost 3 years; more than 4 years in the felony trial division, including service as the supervisor of the felony trial division at the Daley Center, engaged in the general practice of law with emphasis on civil litigation from August 1977 to the present; former instructor in Appellate Advocacy, Loyola University School of Law; Federal Defender Panel Attorney; arbitrator for Circuit Court of Cook County Arbitration Program.

TRIAL EXPERIENCE: Tried over 300 civil and criminal cases including more than 75 jury trials.

APPELLATE EXPERIENCE: Personally handled dozens of cases on appeal before the Illinois Appellate Court, Illinois Supreme Court and Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals; supervised hundreds of cases as Chief of Criminal Appeals for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.

LECTURES: Numerous lectures before colleges and civic groups including programs of IICLE, Northwestern University School of Law, The John Marshall Law School, Chicago-Kent College of Law, The State's Attorney's Association and Drug Enforcement Administration on a variety of trial and litigation matters.

SPECIAL RECOGNITION: "The record before us discloses that on the day of defendant's trial, Mr. Lawrence Bolon, the assistant state's attorney in charge of the prosecution, informed the court and his opposing counsel that James Johnson and Suzy Foushee were narcotic addicts and that Johnson had sight only in his left eye. We pause to observe that this voluntary disclosure of information adverse to the State's case was conduct consistent with the highest tradition of our profession. It is this kind of candor and forthrightness that should always characterize the conduct of a lawyer who speaks for the People in a criminal case." From opinion by Justice George N. Leighton in People vs McKibben, 24 Ill.App.3d 692 at 695 (1974).