The Titan Judges

Story by Chris Francis '13

IWU's legal minds are shaping the judiciary in the state of Illinois and beyond. Three of these judges share the stories of their careers within criminal and civil justice.

Last year, IWU saw a remarkable convergence of legal careers among its community of alumni. Five alumni were appointed or retained as judges — four in Illinois and one in Idaho, including two appointed to the Illinois federal bench by President Joe Biden. In a state where judges hold their positions for four to six years, and a nation where federal judges serve for life, this coinciding of careers is an especially rare phenomenon.

Also remarkable is these judges’ contribution to the diversity of the Illinois bench. Three of IWU’s alumni judges — Cook County (Ill.) Circuit Court Judge Deidre Dyer ‘96, Madison County (Ill.) Associate Judge Ryan Jumper ‘00 and Federal District Court Judge for the Northern District of Illinois Jeremy Daniel ‘00 — are African American citizens of Illinois who see their careers as opportunities to ensure and advance equal protection under the law and basic dignity afforded by the state.

Judges Deidre, Ryan and Jeremy spoke to Illinois Wesleyan University Magazine about their time at IWU, their success in the fields of law and justice, and their experience making sure those disciplines better serve all citizens.

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One would expect three judges’ educational interests at IWU to resemble each other, and they did: They were all chemistry and biology majors.

“When I showed up at law school, and people found out I had a chemistry degree, they asked me if I was there to learn patent law,” Jeremy said. He figured that he was and spent six years litigating patents, until an internship with a federal judge turned his interest toward criminal prosecution.

For Deidre, her study of chemistry was only a brief stop on the way to discovering her passion for the French language and culture. Following the advice of Associate Professor of French James Matthews, who Deidre describes as having an enormous influence on her education, “I studied at the Sorbonne for seven months, which was life changing for me coming from the South Side of Chicago,” she said. “Lively debate is encouraged there, and I appreciated how they march in the streets in protest at the first sign of injustice.”

As for Ryan, he began his time at IWU just down the hallway in the Center for Natural Science as a biology major with the goal of becoming a doctor. But, like Deidre, he quickly found other interests. “When you get into the biology lab, and you look around at all the charts and labels and think, ‘It all looks like guts to me,’ that’s how you create a political science major,” he said. As part of his undergraduate scholarship in his new major, Ryan conducted polling for national elections with professor Tari Renner.

Despite their eventual divergence in academic interests, Jeremy and Ryan both specifically chose IWU to play football with Norm Eash in 1996. “We were really good back then,” Ryan remembers. “We were a playoff-level team. But, honestly, I was a better student than I was an athlete.”

Jeremy soon wasn’t a varsity athlete at all. He left the team after his first year when a friend inspired him to join the Marine Corps Reserve. After graduation, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and deployed to Okinawa.

Despite their different undergraduate paths, the francophile, politico and chemist each graduated from law school with the same goal: become a part of a better legal system.

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“I really got the Josephine Baker experience in France,” Deidre said, referencing the 20th century African American performer and civil rights activist whose career flourished in Paris. “All of a sudden it was cool to be a Black woman. People celebrated me and were happy to see me. I feel like every Black person should have that experience at least once, because it was very eye-opening for me.”

While abroad, Deidre resolved to return to France to pursue a career in international law. She even credited her degree in French with her success as a law student and prosecutor. “I was kind of a wallflower before I went to Paris,” but, through learning another language, she grew more confident in articulating herself. “French culture is very much about speaking your mind and being able to support your position with facts.”

But her return to the United States and scholarship at the DePaul University College of Law gave her a new sense of conviction.

“I was the only Black person in my first law school section, and I went from being celebrated and very welcomed in France to coming back to the U.S.,” Deidre said. “That's when I thought, ‘Well, I could use my skills to leave, but that’s not right.’ I decided to take a French attitude and learn the law so that I could hopefully make our spaces more welcoming to people.”

All three judges see themselves as much needed examples of African American achievement in civil and criminal justice, but also as professionals who are able to provide, and understand, perspectives that are otherwise disregarded.

“I grew up on the West Side of Chicago where there were challenges,” Jeremy said. “In my time as [assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Illinois], I would explain to people that I remember, as a kid, not being able to play in the park because drug dealers had set up shop there, or grandparents would go inside from the porch because there was trouble down the street… There are a variety of social ills and ways to address them. I understood that I perhaps wouldn’t be able to be a teacher or social worker, but I would be an effective trial lawyer with an understanding of people’s experiences and motivations.”

He continued, “I can appreciate the individual who faced a discrimination claim or was denied or is appealing a denial of Social Security benefits, because I understand what it means for people who have fallen on hard times or who have been discriminated against.”

“I was a kid from a small neighborhood in Southern Illinois,” Ryan said, “who was African American in a mostly white community, went to a liberal arts college for undergrad and then a state school for law school, was an athlete but also a band kid…I want to be someone in the room with different perspectives that add value.”

Deidre has found that the value can be as simple as giving people a sense of dignity.
 “I’ve had defendants come up to me and say, ‘You’re the first person here who treated me with respect. I know what I did was wrong, and I appreciate that you treated me like a human being anyway.’ It shouldn’t be hard for people to feel that,” she said.

Although Ryan and Jeremy are from the same class, coming to IWU a semester after Deidre graduated, Ryan is actually the old hat on the bench among the three. His time there has given him unique opportunities to interpret the law using his scholarship and diverse perspective.

Ryan first became a judge back in 2018, when he was appointed as associate judge in Madison County, Illinois. In 2023, “Judge (Bill) Mudge” of the Madison County Circuit Court retired, prompting an election. Ryan lost the election, but the county retained him in his associate judge position that year.

During his time on the bench, “there was a change that basically rewrote the statute on family law in Illinois that took away old assumptions about child custody. There was no longer 100 years of legal precedent to rely on, so I was one of the judges tasked with interpreting these laws for the first time,” he explained.

In addition, “Illinois just passed… the Safety Act, which determines who has to stay in jail while awaiting trial in Illinois. I was one of the first people to have to interpret that law.”
 Although Deidre took her first seat as a judge in 2023, “They already put me on a special committee that sets the protocols for how we work with litigants who have mental health issues,” she said.

It’s a position of sobering responsibility that many judges will find themselves in, and a good jurist will understand the value of all kinds of perspectives in ensuring the law is rooted in sound and effective interpretation.

“You can consider it a form of empathy, but it's just a practical, objective way of looking at it,” Jeremy said. “People often think of it as racial diversity, but you want people with any life experience. For example, if they have family who have dealt with immigration issues or professional diversity between being a prosecutor or defender… It’s ultimately about stepping back, understanding what remedy people are seeking, and determining if they have a legal right to it.”

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The IWU judges have carried their undergraduate education with them through their careers, as well as their friendships.

As Deidre said, “Most of the people at my swearing in,” for her appointment to a Cook County Circuit Court vacancy, “were Wesleyan alums. They’re all people I met at Wesleyan, and we’ve been friends ever since.” Deidre is now campaigning in 2024 to keep that position, and “half of my campaign committee is Illinois Wesleyan alums.”

“A bunch of us from Fiji House still text weekly,” Ryan said. He was the first Black president of Fiji while at IWU.

All three credit the values of IWU’s liberal arts education as the basis of a successful legal career, where an effective lawyer fills a wide variety of roles and an effective judge considers a wide variety of perspectives.

“It prepared me to take my career into all of these different directions,” Deidre said of her pre-judicial career in which she prosecuted a variety of white collar crimes and public corruption. “My liberal arts education really lets me pivot into different areas and not feel like I can only do one thing.”