Joy Cunningham named Chicago Bar Association's 1st Black Female Pres

Jet, July 5, 2004

Joy V. Cunningham, a former Cook County Circuit Court judge, made Windy City history when she recently became the first Black woman to head the Chicago Bar Association (CBA), one of the oldest bar associations in the country.

Cunningham, who currently serves as senior vice president and general counsel for Northwestern Memorial HealthCare and Northwestern Memorial Hospital, is also the first corporate counsel to be CBA president.

"I have a responsibility to do the very best I can in this position, because young Black lawyers need to recognize that they can be included in the infrastructure of the legal system and have the power to bring about change," said Cunningham, who received her juris doctor from John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

During her one-year term as president of the Chicago Bar Association, Cunningham will advocate for mandatory continuing legal education for Illinois lawyers and sponsor a judicial seminar for state and federal court judges to improve the Administration of Justice.

She is also committed to expanding public service and consumer education programs.

A New York native, Cunningham earned her bachelor of science degree from the City University of New York and worked as a nurse before she attended law school in the early 1980s.

She was the first Black female attorney to join the Chicago-based law firm of French, Rogers, Kezelis & Kominiarek and has served as associate general counsel for Loyola University and Loyola University Health System, assistant attorney general and as a judicial clerk to Illinois Appellate Justice Glenn Johnson.

Before she joined Northwestern, Cunningham most recently served as a judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County. She and husband Vance du Rivage have a son, Jeremy Keith, and reside on the North Side of Chicago.

Founded in 1874, the Chicago Bar Association is one of the oldest and most active metropolitan bar associations in the United States.

The CBA's voluntary membership of 22,000 consists largely of lawyers and judges from Cook County and the state of Illinois.