Judge Leonard Murray is a Dean’s List graduate of Northwestern University Law School and a veteran.  He holds a degree in Economics from St. Francis College where he was Captain of the varsity basketball team, a member of the varsity baseball team and has been inducted into its Basketball Hall of Fame and received an Olympic Letter.  

 

He is a past President of the Cook County Bar Association; served on the Board of Managers of the Chicago Bar Association (CBA); served as Chair of the Illinois Judicial Council, the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education; and, as Region VII Director of the National Bar Association (NBA).  He served as a member of the Illinois State Bar Association Assembly (ISBA) and the ISBA finance committee.  He chaired the Illinois Judicial Conference Committee on Criminal Law and Adult Probation Administration.  He previously served on the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Judicial Education.

 

He chaired the ISBA General Practice Section Council.  He also chaired the ISBA Judicial Evaluations Committee (Cook County) while simultaneously chairing the Executive Committee of the Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening. In 2003 he received the ISBA Board of Governors Award, its highest honor.  He is an original member and continues to serve on the Illinois Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission.  He is a past Chair of the NBA Judicial Council Division.  In 2012 and in 2016 he received a Presidential Award from the NBA.  During the administration of President Barack Obama, he twice received the Presidential Volunteer Award.  He is the recipient of numerous other awards.

 

Judge Murray was selected as an Associate Judge of Cook County Illinois in April 2007 and was elected as a Circuit Judge in November 2016.  Since October 2016 he has served as the Supervising judge in the Housing Section of the Cook County Circuit Court, a section of the court where City of Chicago, Illinois and Cook County Illinois building code violations are prosecuted, along with other municipal code claims and the review of appeals from administrative hearings.  Prior to his current assignment he presided over civil jury trials.  

 

Following law school Judge Murray was an associate at Touché Ross n/k/a Deloitte and Touché, an international accounting firm, assigned to the tax department where he rose to the level of supervisor, before leaving to engage in the private practice of law. 

 

Judge Murray currently serves on the Board of Directors of: Sangamon Terrace Senior Housing; Africa International House USA, Inc.; The Salvation Army Englewood Red Shield Center Advisory Board; and, the Salvation Army Chicago Advisory Board. He previously served as a Director of The Center for Elder Law and Disabilities; Catholic Lawyers Guild and as Treasurer – National Bar Association 2018-2020.

 

He has an earned Black Belt in the Korean martial arts form Tae Kwon Do and is a licensed Scuba diver.