Indian American Judge Rena Marie Van Tine recently announced her candidacy for the Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois. The election for the court is in 2022.
“It is unusual that a judge that’s been serving in the system for 20 years would be running for judge,” she told Southland Journal. “No one will have to guess at the kind of judge I’ll be because I’ve been serving and doing the job for 20 years. My life is an open book, the history of my decisions on the bench speaks for itself.
“Even before becoming a judge, I had the perspective of a lawyer that was advocating for each side so I think that’s an important part of it as well,” she added in the report.
Rena Marie Van Tine had become the first female Indian American judge in the nation to serve on a state court on June 12, 2001, when she was appointed Associate Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County.
Rena Marie became the first female Indian American Judge in Cook County when the Illinois Supreme Court appointed her to a countywide vacancy in February 2021. She is currently assigned to the Law Division, Law Jury Trial Assignment call at the Richard M. Daley Center since February 2017. She was previously assigned to Juvenile Court located in Chicago, Illinois.
Before getting an appointment to the bench, Judge Van Tine served as Special Counsel to Illinois State Comptroller Daniel W. Hynes. Judge Van Tine was also a Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney for 12 years.
“In this capacity, she wrote numerous appellate briefs and argued several cases in the Appellate Court. She has also tried hundreds of cases. She served the people of the State of Illinois in the Criminal Division prosecuting violent offenders and in the Civil Division, where she focused primarily on defending medical malpractice cases against Cook County Hospital. As a lawyer, she tried many jury trials in criminal and civil litigation,” read her profile.
As a lawyer, she was very vocal about hate crimes. She served as adjunct faculty and instructor at the February 2020 Judicial Education Conference for all state court judges in Illinois. She is also a board member of the Chinese Mutual Aid Association. She has also appeared as a panellist on several cable programs on behalf of the Illinois Judges Association for topics such as running ethical judicial campaigns, women and the law, and what to expect in child protection court.
Judge Van Tine makes numerous appearances as a guest speaker, moderator, and lecturer at several law schools, bar association programs, and symposiums to educate law students, attorneys, judges, and community members about various aspects of the law and Asian American issues.
She wrote a book chapter in the American Bar Association’s publication of “Dear Sisters, Dear Daughters: Words of wisdom from multicultural women attorneys who have been there and done that.” She has also written several Law Division bench book chapters.
Before becoming a judge, Rena was the Chair of State’s Attorney Richard A. Devine’s Asian American Advisory Council. She was also Joint Treasurer of the Indo-American Democratic Organization and a board member of the Asian American Democratic Organization. Rena was a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention held in August 2000. Judge Van Tine was an adjunct professor for Trial Advocacy at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. Rena was Chair of WILPOWER, the WBAI’s then political action committee. Judge Van Tine was a founding member of the Chicago chapter of the Indian-American Bar Association (renamed the South Asian American Bar Association of Chicago in 2016) and served on its first board of directors.
Judge Van Tine earned her law degree at New York Law School and her undergraduate degree from Oakland University. She has completed several graduate courses at Michigan State University focusing on intercultural communication.
