Sonni Choi Williams

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Identify: Sonni Choi Williams

Age: (as of Election Day): 53

Home: Lockport

Present-day posture and employer: Metropolis Lawyer, Metropolis of Lockport

Previous authorized working experience with years of each individual work: Metropolis Legal professional for the City of Lockport, 5 a long time to latest Deputy Corporation Counsel/Interim Corporation Counsel/ Senior Workers Attorney/ Assistant Company Counsel for Town of Peoria, Illinois, 17 and 1/2 years Tazewell County General public Defender’s office environment assigned to juvenile delinquency and abuse/neglect conditions, significantly less than a calendar year Williams and Associates, Associate in standard follow, a lot less than a 12 months.

Law school, 12 months graduated: Northern Illinois University College of Legislation, 1999.

Marketing campaign web page: vote4sonni.com

Family: Spouse: Dick (Prosperous) B. Williams and two sons: Ian and Alex.

Hobbies/passions: I am an avid runner, owning operate marathons, fifty percent marathons, and 5Ks. When I have time, I adore to cook for my family.

Have you ever operate for office environment just before? Of course, the 2016 Principal for the Peoria County Circuit Decide-Brandt Emptiness

Why should voters assist your candidacy?

I am the very best prospect who will convey the 3rd District Appellate Court docket ahead to mirror the neighborhood that it serves, in particular looking at the newly remapped 3rd District that contains DuPage, Will, Kankakee, Iroquois, Grundy, LaSalle, and Bureau Counties. I have a broad variety of practical experience from getting an assistant community defender, prosecutor, common practitioner, and a very long profession as a community servant for two municipalities, and I have taken care of situations from the demo court ranges to the appellate courtroom degrees in condition and federal courts as effectively as the Illinois Supreme Court docket. I convey humility to the bench conquering road blocks expanding up as a bad immigrant to develop into a prosperous attorney. My humble background has pushed my passion to give back again to the neighborhood as a result of my company on several companies this kind of as Prairie Condition Authorized Services and the Illinois Bar Foundation whose missions are to boost obtain to justice.

Who is/was your most critical mentor and why?

As a lady lawyer in a profession that however demands far more women in management positions together with as judges, my most crucial mentors include Illinois Supreme Court docket Decide Rita Garman and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Each faced and overcame obstacles of finding work immediately after graduating major of their courses in their respective legislation universities. I have been privileged to fulfill each of them in individual and I was stunned at how down-to-earth and approachable equally of these trailblazers were to me. I continue to keep in mind conference Justice Ginsberg (notorious RBG) soon after she was admitted to the U.S. Supreme Courtroom in 2014 and how petite and frail that she seemed, but the minute that she spoke, she commanded the area.

What are your feelings on a hybrid in-individual and distant long term for the courts?

I consider that hybrid in-person and remote court docket configurations are right here to remain, and these kinds of options profit attorneys who do not have to travel for a mere scenario administration conference or a position connect with and their purchasers who will not be billed for these types of vacation time. The alternative of remote participation on a position simply call could have saved the lifestyle of a young associate in a legislation business in Peoria who died in a tragic temperature-related vehicular accident. He was driving again from a rural county for a standing contact on a case that he was covering for a husband or wife in the firm when his car was strike head-on by a semi-trailer truck that missing command from the winter season storm situation. While his tragic dying occurred over 17 years back just before the selection of virtual listening to was conveniently obtainable, the mechanics of a telephone convention was readily available at the time and could have been utilised, but the courtroom procedures did not enable for these types of remote participation.

What would you contemplate your biggest profession accomplishment?

I experienced the prospect to argue one particular of the last federal appeals conditions that Decide Posner of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals listened to prior to he retired. The plaintiffs had been trying to get a multi-million greenback judgment from the city and county defendants for unjust enrichment. I realized that Judge Posner had a name of remaining daunting, but I observed him to be delightful and he actually cracked some humorous remarks about the opposing side’s arguments. Finally I finished up winning for the metropolis and county defendants and it was a excellent way of ending my just about 18 decades functioning for the City of Peoria to be appointed as the Metropolis Legal professional of Lockport in which I presently provide and live.

What qualities do you plan to bring to the bench?

I have a wide vary of knowledge from remaining an assistant general public defender, prosecutor, basic practitioner, and a very long job as a community servant for two municipalities, and have straight handled situations from the demo court levels to the appellate courtroom stages in point out and federal courts as very well as the Illinois Supreme Courtroom. Due to the fact I have worked mainly in the general public sector and not in non-public observe, I often had to deal with cases ranging from ordinance cases to elaborate federal conditions by yourself devoid of one more attorney or even the support of administrative personnel. I would not only consider the cases prior to the demo courtroom, but I would do the appellate do the job for people situations that have been appealed. I convey my hard perform ethics, the benefits of obtaining a well-rounded knowledge, and the enjoy of the regulation to hear appeals circumstances with an open-brain and persistence essential to improve the community notion of a truthful and neutral justice procedure.

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