After serving on the Circuit Court of Cook County since 2008, Judge Debra Walker was elected to the Illinois Appellate Court, First District in 2022. She was a trial lawyer in Chicago for 21 years prior to becoming a judge.
Justice Walker is a 1982 University of Illinois College of Business graduate with an accounting degree. She passed the CPA examination on her first attempt and served as a staff accountant with McGladrey (n/k/a/ RSM) prior to attending law school. She is a 1987 University of Illinois College of Law alumna. Walker has served her alma mater on its Board of Visitors, The Dean’s Advisory Board, and as the charter chairman of its Recent Alumni Advisory Board. She also serves on the board of its Anderson Center for Advocacy and Professionalism and on its Leadership Initiative Council. In 2014, Walker was the recipient of the U. of I. College of Law Alumni Loyalty Award, and in 2019, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the U. of I. College of Law. In 2020, Justice Walker was the first alumnus to be appointed to the U. of I. College of Law Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She is also the newly elected President of the University of Illinois Moms Association.
Walker is a past president of the Illinois Judges Foundation and has served on its board since 2015. Additionally, she is a past president of the Illinois Bar Foundation and the 2022 recipient of its Distinguished Service to Law and Society Award. She served on the board of the National Conference of Bar Foundations from 2013 to 2016. Walker received the Excellence Award from the NCBF in 2017. Justice Walker is a past president of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois and a 2012 recipient of its Mary Heftel Hooton Award, a past president of the North Michigan Avenue Business & Professional Women’s Network, and an active member of the Illinois State Bar Association (for which she recently served as Chair of the Bench & Bar Section Council), the Illinois Judges Association, and the Economic Club of Chicago.
Justice Walker has also served the Illinois Supreme Court in three ways. She was a charter member of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism and served as a commissioner for nearly 20 years, six of those years as Chair. She was also a charter member of the Illinois Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission and served that body for six years. Additionally, she serves as the proxy for the Chief Justice on the Illinois Judicial Pension Board (JRS) and currently serves as its Chair, while also representing JRS on the Illinois State Board of Investment.
Walker is a frequent presenter and panelist for lawyers, judges, and law students on professionalism topics such as civility, bullying and harassment, as well as diversity and inclusion.
Justice Walker grew up on a small farm near Carthage, Illinois with four brothers and a sister. She now lives in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago.