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| Moshe Jacobius |
But 15 grandchildren and other family in Israel, where the longtime overseer of Cook County's chancery division hopes to build a house, are a motivating force behind Judge Jacobius' decision to retire after three decades in the judiciary.
"I have to express my gratitude. I've loved every minute of it," the judge told Law360 in an interview Thursday.
After an initial election in 1994, voters retained him for four six-year terms, and his most recent judicial evaluations from state and local bar associations, for his retention in 2018, deemed him knowledgeable, well-prepared and impartial.
Though Judge Jacobius' current term extends to 2024, Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans announced the retirement Thursday and has not yet named a successor.
"I wish Judge Jacobius well in his retirement," Evans said in a statement. "We will miss his keen intelligence, competence, kindness, steadiness, and always thoughtful approach to justice, and we applaud him for his many years of service to the citizens of Illinois."
In the three decades since he was appointed as a circuit judge in 1991, Judge Jacobius has led two divisions of the sprawling Cook County court system. He's presided over the chancery division, which handles class actions, mortgage foreclosures and declaratory judgments, since December 2010. Before that, he began his career on the bench as a trial judge in Cook County's domestic relations division, and he later became its presiding judge in 2000.
Reflecting on his judicial career with Law360, Judge Jacobius said he was proud of the leadership and administrative duties that came with those roles, "of being able to create an atmosphere of collegiality with the judges, where we're all working in unison together for a common purpose. To make the law an instrument of justice."
One of the most important changes he's seen in Cook County courts since he first joined the bench is an increased diversity of judges.
"It's been a boon to the court and to the functioning of the courts and the judicial system," he said.
Improvements in technology have over the years allowed judges to be more on top of their cases, he said, and embracing new technology showed clear benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic for conducting remote hearings, a practice Judge Jacobius hopes will stick around long term.
In a move that would prove prescient to the court when it was forced to shift most court hearings to Zoom in early 2020, the chancery division under Judge Jacobius launched a pilot program in 2019 to conduct mortgage foreclosure proceedings remotely via video conference. That was done in part at the urging of Illinois appellate Justices Mary Mikva and Mary Rochford, who worried it was exacerbating debtors' problems to force them to take time off work and appear for every status hearing, he told Law360.
"We were having Zoom demonstration sessions before any of this hit. When it hit, [we were] able to instruct all the judges throughout the system about Zoom and how to make it work," Judge Jacobius said. "Attorneys like it. It works very well. It helps you expedite matters in a more efficient way."
Describing him as "a leader on access to justice issues," Chief Judge Evans also pointed to Judge Jacobius' efforts to improve the court's mortgage foreclosure mediation program, which aimed to provide homeowners with free counseling and legal assistance early on in the foreclosure process.
That program launched amid the 2008 recession and housing crisis — during which, Judge Jacobius told Law360, there were as many as 8,000 foreclosure cases per judge in the division — but ended several years ago when demand was lower. It's soon being relaunched in collaboration with Cook County Legal Aid for Housing and Debt and comes at an important time, as the state courts are contending with an onslaught of cases after the end of a statewide moratorium on foreclosures in October.
It was a state-of-the-art program that stands out as a point of pride in his judicial career, the judge said. It made not just attorneys available to people facing foreclosure but case managers as well, who could act as a go-between for litigants and point them in the right direction, he said.
"We saved a lot of people's homes," Judge Jacobius said. "I don't know of any other program that had all of the components we had."
Judge Jacobius declined to weigh in on the specifics of major cases he's presided over during his tenure, but said he's had a wide range of lawsuits on his docket over the years, including massive insurance disputes, complicated antitrust cases, conflicts involving governmental entities, challenges to the granting of contracts and complex cases involving fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty and the breakup of corporations.
Most recently, Judge Jacobius has handled cases challenging the state's cannabis business licensing and the city of Chicago's COVID-19 vaccination requirements, as well as multiple lawsuits filed by businesses seeking coverage for COVID-19-related losses.
Judge Jacobius received his undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of Illinois and his law degree from DePaul University. Before joining the bench, he spent 16 years prosecuting cases and defending state agencies and officials in the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, and later served as counsel to the attorney general before his judicial appointment. He's also worked as a public school teacher in Chicago.
Of all the countless attorneys who have argued before him the last 30 years, the ones that impressed him the most are the ones who were clearly genuine, Judge Jacobius said.
His advice for practicing or burgeoning attorneys in the Prairie State? Be prepared, know your case, but be transparent in articulating your position, he said.
"Don't try to formulate an argument that you know is not really supported by law," he said. "I understand attorneys have a job to do, and they have to represent a client, but don't try to pull the wool over a judge's eyes. Because most judges can see right through that."
Judge Jacobius' retirement takes effect Jan. 30, but he's not through with legal work entirely. In addition to more family time, his next chapter will include assisting with mediation and arbitration at JAMS, the largest private provider of alternative dispute resolution services worldwide, starting next week, he said.
"I think it's very important to keep on working, and to keep on learning," the judge said.
--Editing by Andrew Cohen.
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