Bertina E. Lampkin was born December 20, 1948, in Chicago. She received her B.A. degree from Roosevelt University and her J.D. degree from DePaul University College of Law. She was an Assistant State's Attorney (1974-1985) and an Assistant Corporation Counsel (1985-1987) before her appointment as an associate judge. She served as an Associate Judge from 1987 to 1992, serving as Assistant Supervisor of the Traffic Division, and as a Circuit Court Judge from 1992 to 2009, serving as supervisor of the Domestic Violence Courts and as supervisor in the Criminal Division. She was appointed to the Appellate Court in 2009. She has served as a member of four different Illinois Supreme Court committees and has served as Chair of two of them, the Criminal Law and Probation Administration Committee and the Illinois Pattern Instructions in Criminal Cases Committee. She has taught judges in various aspects of the law for 20 years, including death penalty litigation, proper handling of guilty pleas and jury selection. She is a member of the Illinois Judges' Association, The Illinois Judicial Council, The Women's Bar Association of Illinois, and the American, Chicago, Cook County and Black Women Lawyers Bar Associations. She is very active in her church locally and nationally.