Judge Thomas More Donnelly

A Cook County Circuit Judge, Thomas More Donnelly, was sworn in as a judge more than 25 years ago on January 7, 2000. On the faculty of the National Judicial College for nearly ten years, he helped found and chaired the Illinois Judicial College. Before joining the judiciary, the Honorable Mary Ann G. McMorrow hired him as her law clerk, and the Cook County Public Defender employed him as an assistant public defender for 18 months and a supervisor for over ten years.

Judge Donnelly has received: the Chicago Bar Association’s Vanguard Award (2025), the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice’s Hon. Thomas L. Kilbride (Ret.) Judicial Access to Justice Award (2024), the St. John’s Alumni Association Award of Merit, (2024) and many other awards. Teaching at Loyola Law School since 1987, Judge Donnelly directed the Philip H. Corboy Trial Advocacy Fellowship for twenty years (1995-2016). He has taught Illinois Litigation: Race Injustice and Poverty, Illinois Civil Litigation Practice, Professional Responsibility, Professional Responsibility Seminar, and Criminal Procedure.

Founding President of the Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network, sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute, he has conducted round-table dialogues between the formerly incarcerated, those victimized by crime, judges, lawyers, and law enforcement in eleven cities across the country. He advises the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development. Married to Anne Wicker, they have four grown sons and attend Queen of Apostle’s parish.