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Carol A. Brook

During her 42 years at the Federal Defender Program for the Northern District of Illinois, Carol A. Brook served as its Chief Appellate Attorney, Deputy Director and, from 2009-2018, its Executive Director. While at the Federal Defender Program, she defended hundreds of persons in the district court and more than she cares to count in the Seventh Circuit. She supervised a staff of 40 and supported a Panel of 170 private attorneys qualified to take appointments in federal criminal cases. A long-time board member for organizations such as the Chicago Federal Bar Association, the Just the Beginning Foundation, and the John Howard Association, Carol also served as both board member and president of the Illinois Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the National Association of Federal Defenders. She has chaired numerous national committees and in 2011 was appointed to the U.S. Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules. Carol regularly speaks and writes on racial disparity in the criminal justice system, discovery, ethics and sentencing. She is currently Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at The John Marshall Law School teaching criminal procedure. She and her husband, Thomas Corfman, are long-time Chicago residents and are the proud parents of Sam Corfman, a poet, and Jack Corfman, a lawyer.

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