The Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism is pleased to announce that the Illinois Supreme Court has appointed John K. Kim as Chair and Justice Sharon O. Johnson as Vice-Chair of the Commission on Professionalism.
Kim assumes the role of Chair from Martin V. Sinclair, Jr., whose term on the Commission expires on December 31, 2023. Sinclair has served on the Commission since 2015 and was appointed Chair in 2019.
In addition, the Court has reappointed Justice Mary Ellen Coghlan as a Commissioner and appointed two new Commissioners: Amanda J. Hamilton and Eirene Salvi.
These appointments are effective on January 1, 2024.
The terms of Commissioners Judge Franklin U. Valderrama of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and John F. O’Reilly also expire on December 31, 2023.
“I would like to thank Martin Sinclair, Judge Franklin Valderrama, and John O’Reilly for their important role in promoting a more equitable and effective legal profession in Illinois,” said Illinois Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth M. Rochford, who serves as Supreme Court Liaison to the Commission. “I look forward to collaborating with Amanda Hamilton and Eirene Salvi, who will offer leadership on the professionalism challenges and opportunities of the next generation of attorneys, and our current Commissioners in continuing this work.”
John Kim appointed Commission Chair
John Kim is Associate General Counsel at Edward Jones where he counsels on labor and employment matters. Previously, he worked as in-house counsel at State Farm and was in private practice in Central Illinois.
Kim serves on the Board of Directors of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Law Foundation and the boards of Prairie State Legal Services and the Immigration Project.
He is a member of the McLean County Bar Association, where he serves on the Underwood Committee on Professionalism, on the board of directors of the Children’s Discovery Museum Foundation, and volunteers at the Community Health Care Clinic in McLean County.
Kim holds a J.D. from American University’s Washington College of Law and a B.A. from Wheaton College. He was appointed to the Commission on Professionalism in 2019 and as Vice-Chair in 2022.
“I am honored to be appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court as Chair, and grateful for the opportunity to help lead in the promotion of a more civil, ethical, and inclusive legal profession,” said Kim. “I would like to thank Martin Sinclair for the strong and steady-handed leadership he has shown as Commission Chair, especially throughout the pandemic. I look forward to building on this foundation and continuing to extend the Commission’s collaborations with legal organizations and stakeholders across Illinois to address the modern professionalism issues faced by today’s lawyers and judges.”
Justice Sharon O. Johnson appointed Vice-Chair
Justice Sharon O. Johnson serves on the Illinois Appellate Court First District. Before being elected to the Appellate Court, Johnson served in the Circuit Court of Cook County Domestic Relations Division. Earlier in her career she owned a boutique law firm, worked for the Chicago Mayor’s Office of Employment and Training, and served as a law clerk for the New Jersey Superior Court.
Johnson is a member of the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Professional Responsibility, the CBA/CBF Task Force Subcommittee Working Group on the Sustainable Practice of Law, the Illinois Judges Association Subcommittee: Restoring Confidence in the Legal System, the Cook County Bar Association, and many other legal associations.
She was a faculty member of the Illinois Judicial Education Conference from 2014 to 2022 and is a former president of the Illinois Judicial Council.
Johnson received a J.D. from Howard University School of Law and a B.S. from Bradley University. She has served on the Commission on Professionalism since 2022.
“It is a privilege to be appointed as Vice-Chair of the Commission on Professionalism, an organization whose mission is fundamental in creating stronger legal and judicial systems,” said Johnson. “I know that, under attorney Kim’s leadership, the Commission will continue to be a national leader in legal professionalism. I look forward to supporting the Commission and the Illinois Supreme Court in this new capacity.”
New Commissioner appointments
Amanda J. Hamilton is a partner at Konicek & Dillon, P.C. where she concentrates her practice in the fields of appellate law, professional liability, commercial litigation, and ethics. Hamilton has experience litigating civil and criminal matters in jury and bench trials and regularly argues before the Illinois Appellate Courts, the Illinois Supreme Court, and the U.S. Court of Appeals.
In addition, Hamilton represents professionals in administrative hearings including those of the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation, the Judicial Inquiry Board, and the Illinois Courts Commission.
She began her career in Washington, D.C., as a White House intern and then a Presidential Appointee to the U.S. Department of State, where she worked in the Bureau of Public Affairs under the leadership of Secretary Condoleezza Rice.
Hamilton has been recognized by Leading Lawyers Network as being in the top 2% of attorneys under 40 every year since 2015 and has been selected to the Super Lawyers list of Rising Stars since 2020.
She is a member of the Illinois Appellate Lawyers Association, the Illinois State Bar Association, the DuPage County Bar Association, and the Kane County Bar Association. Hamilton has been published in the Illinois Bar Journal and Kane County Bar Briefs and teaches seminars on legal ethics and recent appellate decisions.
She received a J.D. and an MBA from Northern Illinois University, graduating magna cum laude, and undergraduate degrees in Economics, Business Administration, and Communication from Augustana College.
Eirene Nakamura Salvi is an attorney at Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. where she concentrates her legal practice on cases involving medical malpractice, personal injury, and product liability.
She has obtained many noteworthy verdicts and settlements, including serving on the trial team that won a record-setting $148 million jury verdict, which was the highest compensatory verdict ever awarded to an individual plaintiff in Illinois.
Salvi has been recognized by Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch and Leading Lawyers as an Emerging Lawyer, and has repeatedly been named a Rising Star by Illinois Super Lawyers. In 2018 and 2022, she was honored with a Trial Lawyer Excellence Award by The Jury Verdict Reporter and Law Bulletin Media.
In 2023, Salvi received the Asian American Bar Association of Greater Chicago’s Rising Star award, and, in 2020, was selected as the recipient of the Diversity Leadership Award by the Illinois State Bar Association.
Salvi is the president of the board for Lawyers Lend-A-Hand to Youth, an organization that channels the legal community’s resources to promote one-to-one mentoring and tutoring programs in disadvantaged Chicago communities.
She also serves on the board of managers for the Chicago Bar Association, is a founding member and former co-chair of the Chicago Committee of the Japanese American Bar Association, and is an officer of the board of JABA Educational Foundation.
Salvi is part of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and a member of the Illinois State Bar Association, American Association for Justice, Chinese American Bar Association, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.
Salvi received a J.D. from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Pacific Union College in California.
About the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism
The Illinois Supreme Court established the Commission on Professionalism under Supreme Court Rule 799 to promote integrity, professionalism, and civility among the lawyers and judges of Illinois, to foster a commitment to the elimination of bias and divisiveness within the legal and judicial systems, and to ensure those systems provide equitable, effective, and efficient resolution of problems for the people of Illinois.
The Commission achieves this mission through professional responsibility CLE, lawyer-to-lawyer mentoring, legal professionalism programming, educational resources, and more. To learn more, visit 2Civility.org and follow us on social media.
Press Contact
Laura Bagby, Communications Director
312-363-6209
laura.bagby@2civility.org