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Judges
and justice partners responsible for ensuring meaningful language access to the
court will overview the nuts and bolts of conducting remote hearings and the
selection and use of interpreters guided by nationally accepted best practices.
Judge Clay-Herron sits in the County
Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County where she presides over diverse
areas of law including, but not limited to: election cases; adoptions; mental
health commitment trials; tax deed cases; real estate taxation cases; and civil
asset forfeiture cases. For ten years, Judge Clay-Herron has taught in Cook
County’s New Judges School; and since 2016 has been faculty for various Judicial
Education Conference and Seminar and received excellent reviews. In July
of 2018, Judge Clay-Herron taught Civil Asset Forfeiture to judges in Trinidad,
Port of Spain at the request of the National Center for State Courts.
Prior to taking the bench in 2007, Judge Clay-Herron taught middle
school math and science for 17 years in the Chicago Public Schools. She
also served as a sole practitioner, Commissioner on the Illinois Court of
Claims for seven years where she presided over a multitude of lawsuits filed
against the State of Illinois including wrongful death and unjust imprisonment,
and a Cook County Arbitrator for the County’s Mandatory Arbitration Program for
several years.
Hon.LaGuina Clay-Herron
Email:
Joseph J. Bruce has been an Associate
Circuit Judge for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit since 2006. He received his B.A. from Lawrence
University, Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1974 and his J.D. from George Washington
University Law School, Washington, D.C., in 1977. He is a Peer Reviewer for the Illinois
Judicial Benchbook on Domestic Violence and is a member of the Illinois Supreme
Court Commission on Access to Justice Committee to develop standardized domestic
relations court forms.
Judge Bruce served
as an Assistant State’s Attorney in DeKalb County, Illinois from 1977-78 and in
Winnebago County, Illinois from 1978-1981.
He practiced in the law firm of Vella, Sparkman & Bruce from
1981-1989 and was a sole practitioner from 1989-2006. Judge Bruce is a member of the Winnebago
County Bar Association and Illinois State Bar Association and is a past
president of the Winnebago County Bar Foundation. He has served on the Board of Directors of
the Rock River Valley Council of Girl Scouts, United Way of Rock River Valley, Prairie
State Legal Services and Illinois Legal Aid Online. He is a regular participant in the Legal
Follies of the Winnebago County Bar Association.
Hon. Joseph J. Bruce, 17th Circuit
Email:
Ruth Garcia
received her Associate Degree from the Official School of Foreign Languages in
Málaga, Spain (English, French and Italian). She actively used her language
skills throughout her career overseas. She moved to the US in 1998, soon
thereafter she discovered the world of interpretation as a professional
interpreter.
After years of
experience as a medical interpreter, in-person and remotely, she decided to
explore the legal field in 2006, and that lead her to pursue a certification in
court interpreting.
She has been
working full time as an independent court interpreter ever since. She also
extended her professional services to various fields such as Conference
interpreting, business, immigration courts, etc.
In 2020, she
discovered inLingo, a revolutionary remote interpretation company that shares
her values as a professional linguist. She became a partner of the company
where she covers the role of Director of Quality Assurance & Interpreter
Coordinator.
Sophia N. Akbar
is the Senior Program Manager on Language Access at the Administrative Office
of the Illinois Courts (AOIC). Sophia manages the AOIC interpreter
certification program in Illinois and the statewide interpreter registry.
Sophia also oversees implementation of the IL Supreme Court Language Access
Policy and serves on the Language Access Advisory Board, which enforces the
Illinois Code of Interpreter Ethics. Sophia conducts trainings for judges and
court personnel to improve and standardize language access practices. Sophia
also reviews data collected from the circuit courts to assess the current need
for interpreters across Illinois.
Sophia
is an attorney with a background in poverty law and policy implementation. Her
prior legal experience involved helping disadvantaged communities access the
legal system. Sophia is not trained as an interpreter, but speaks Urdu and has
studied Arabic. Having grown up in an immigrant community, she is aware of the
challenges language barriers can present to limited English proficient persons.
Sophia graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in Public Policy
and a minor in Arabic in 2008, and graduated from the University of Iowa
College of Law in 2012.
Sophia N. Akbar, J.D.
Senior Program Manager, Language Access
Access to Justice Division
Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts
222 N. LaSalle Street, 13th Floor
Chicago, IL 60601
Email: sakbar@illinoiscourts.gov
312.793.2013 (office)
312.772-4064 (work cell)
