David R. Navarro is a Justice on the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court where he has sat since 2023. Previously, he was the Presiding Judge of the Pretrial Division at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse. There he worked to successfully implement the SAFE-T act, commonly referred to as the Pretrial Fairness Act. He was appointed to the bench in 2017 and elected in 2018.
Prior to his appointment, he served as the Chief of the Public Integrity Bureau at the Office of the Illinois Attorney General. Before that, he was an assistant state’s attorney at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. There he served as the supervisor of the Professional Standards Unit where he prosecuted police misconduct cases. In that role, he was appointed a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the investigation and prosecution of officers in the Chicago Police Department Special Operations Section.
He serves on the Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee and the Illinois Judicial College, Pretrial Practices Division. He is an adjunct faculty member at the Loyola University School of Law where he teaches Trial Practice. He served on the board of directors of the Hispanic Lawyers of Illinois for over 6 years and is a past president of the Illinois Latino Judges Association.
Justice Navarro has been awarded the Latino Judge of the year by the Hispanic National Bar Association, Judge of the Year by the Hispanic Lawyers of Illinois and, in 2023, received the El Humanitario award from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office.
He received his Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Chicago and his JD from the University of Iowa, College of Law.