About Us

Our Story

Judge Webster (Ret.), Judge Egan (Ret.) and Judge French Mallen (Ret.) come from similar legal backgrounds, having honed their skills as civil trial attorneys in a national law firm based in Chicago. Judge Webster (Ret.) and Judge Egan (Ret.) were appointed to the bench in their mid-thirties and elected shortly thereafter. Judge French Mallen practiced for 22 years before being appointed, and then elected; serving on the bench for almost 20 years. Judges Webster, Egan, and French Mallen each presided over cases in the Law Division of their respective Circuit Court and were recognized for their legal and settlement skills, resolving matters on their own dockets as well as cases referred to them at the request of the handling attorneys.

The friendship and mutual respect among these three judges grew as Judge Webster (Ret.) and Judge French Mallen (Ret.) worked together in the Law Division of the 18th Judicial Circuit and all three separately and as partners were requested by the Illinois Judicial Education Committee to teach Illinois judges various topics of civil law. Judge Webster (Ret.) was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to the Illinois Judicial Education Committee for 9 years and performed as Chair of that Committee for 3 years. Judge Egan established a highly lauded monthly continuing legal education seminar for lawyers. Her seminar materials are available on this website.

As civil trial judges with individual calendars, all three Judges presided over a wide variety of civil matters from the filing of the complaint, through motion practice and settlement conferences, to bench and jury trials, and ending with post-trial motions. Because of that experience, all three are committed to the resolution of cases by mediation. They have been successful in resolving disputes through pre-trial settlement conferences, mediations, and arbitrations of civil matters including: