Highland Park Attorney Appointed Lake County Judge

WAUKEGAN, IL — A pair of prosecutors were appointed as associate judges in Lake County, filling two vacant seats resulting from last year's elections, court officials announced.

Ruth Lofthouse, of Highland Park, and James Newman, of Lake Villa, were the top picks of the county's 16 elected circuit judges to succeed Elizabeth Rochford, of Lake Forest, now a justice on the Illinois Supreme Court, and Christopher Kennedy, of Libertyville, who is now an appellate court judge.

Chief Judge Mark Levitt congratulated Lofhouse and Newman on their appointments and said he looked forward to them becoming judges.

“Ms. Lofthouse and Mr. Newman will be excellent additions to the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit. They will bring a considerable amount of skill and understanding to their new roles," Levitt said in a statement.

Lofthouse began practicing law in Illinois in 2006, and earned an MBA from DePaul in 2016, while a partner at the law firm Grund & Leavitt, of Chicago and Highland Park. For the past nearly five years, she has been a prosecutor in Lake County, currently serving as principal assistant state's attorney for general felony prosecutions.

Newman currently works in the McHenry County State's Attorney's Office as chief of the criminal division. He previously worked as a private attorney in Iowa, a Lake County assistant state's attorney and an adjunct professor at the College of Lake County, according to court officials.

Both new judges are set to be sworn in on April 3, 2023.