Attorney Iain Johnston selected to fill vacancy created by retirement of U.S. Magistrate Judge P. Michael Mahoney

Online Staff Report

Chief Judge James F. Holderman announced Feb. 1 that attorney Iain David Johnston has been selected by the district judges of the Northern District of Illinois to fill the judicial vacancy created after the Dec. 31, 2012, retirement of U.S. Magistrate Judge P. Michael Mahoney. Mahoney served 36 years on the court.

“Iain Johnston is an excellent lawyer who has proven himself to be outstanding in many areas of the profession, including as a trial and appellate lawyer in the federal courts,” Holderman said. “I am sure he will be well received by the bar and the community as he takes over as our district’s U.S. magistrate judge headquartered in Rockford.”

Holderman noted, “the reason we have an outstanding magistrate judge bench here in northern Illinois is the hard work of the dedicated and discerning members of our U.S. Magistrate Judge Selection Panels. I thank them for their service to the court.”

The district’s Western Division U.S. Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel, composed of both attorneys and non-attorneys, was chaired by the Honorable Val Gunnarsson, chief judge of the 15th Judicial Circuit in Carroll County, Illinois. The other members were Deputy Chairman Herbert H. Franks, Sara M. Cliffe, Earl Dotson Jr., Mike Dunn, Patricia Fong, Thomas Laughlin, Glenn Schorsch and Linda M. Zuba.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Designate Iain Johnston graduated cum laude from Rockford College in 1987. Three years later, he graduated cum laude from The John Marshall Law School, where he serves as an adjunct professor.

After law school, Johnston was a judicial law clerk for Judge Philip Reinhard of the Illinois Appellate Court, Second District, and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Johnston then became an assistant attorney general, rising to the position of unit supervisor of the Civil Prosecutions Unit. Thereafter, he joined Altheimer & Gray, where he became a partner in 2002.

From 2003 to 2008, Johnston was a senior counsel at Holland & Knight. He is a founding member of the law firm Johnston Greene LLC, where he has focused on an array of government and commercial matters since 2008.

As a special assistant attorney general, Johnston has represented the Illinois Division of Insurance and the Illinois State Police.

Johnston has also served as an administrative law judge for the Division of Insurance, the Illinois State Police, and the Illinois Drycleaners Environmental Response Trust Fund Council.

Johnston is expected to assume the bench in late spring and will have headquarters in the Stanley J. Roszkowski U.S. Courthouse in Rockford. He will work with U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Kapala and Senior U.S. District Judge Philip G. Reinhard. Retired Magistrate Judge Mahoney has also agreed to continue to work on a recalled basis, as needed.

“The magistrate judge assigned to the Western Division of the Northern District of Illinois is historically one of the busiest magistrate judges in the country,” said Holderman. “Retired Magistrate Judge Mahoney served the people of the Northern District of Illinois with great distinction for more than three-and-a-half decades. I am sure that Iain Johnston is up to the task of providing that same great service.

“On behalf of the all judges of our court, I welcome Iain Johnston to the magistrate judge bench of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and thank Magistrate Judge Mahoney for his many years of service and for his continuing commitment to the court and the people of the Northern District of Illinois,” Holderman concluded.

Posted Feb. 1, 2013