The Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism is pleased to announce that Chief Counsel Mark C. Palmer has been named to the 2023 Fastcase 50.
Created in 2011, the Fastcase 50 highlights the contributions of “the top 50 most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries, and leaders in the legal industry.”
The annual list is compiled by vLex, a global legal intelligence platform. Previous Fastcase 50 recipients have included Jayne R. Reardon, former Executive Director of the Commission on Professionalism, and Michelle Silverthorn, former Diversity and Education Director of the Commission on Professionalism.
“Mark Palmer has become a powerful voice in Illinois and beyond on how lawyers can embrace technology to deliver more efficient and effective services while adhering to our ethical obligations as attorneys,” said Martin Sinclair, Chair of the Commission on Professionalism. “On behalf of the Commission, I would like to congratulate Mark on the honor of being included in the Fastcase 50.”
As Chief Counsel at the Commission on Professionalism, Palmer uses education and outreach to promote professionalism, civility, and integrity in the Illinois legal and judicial systems to provide more equitable, efficient, and effective service to the public.
He does so by leading and participating in initiatives including a statewide mentoring program, Courthouse Professionalism Trainings, and professionalism-based educational programming for lawyers, judges, and law students.
Before joining the Commission, Palmer was in private practice at Evans, Froehlich, Beth & Chamley in Champaign, Ill., where his law practice included litigation and transactional experience primarily focused on commercial litigation, banking law, and municipal law in state and federal trial and appellate courts.
He also served on the federal Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel appointed to represent indigent criminal defendants and prisoners in the U.S. Courts.
Palmer is a member of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Commission on Women in the Profession, the Illinois State Bar Association’s Board of Governors and Standing Committee on Legal Technology, the Illinois Supreme Court’s E-Business Policy Board, and the Advisory Council of the National Legal Mentoring Consortium. He also serves as Chair of the Public Interest Law Initiative’s (PILI) 6th Judicial Circuit Pro Bono Committee.
Palmer writes and speaks frequently on legal technology and ethics, including for the ABA Law Practice Magazine, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Chicago Lawyer, Attorney at Work, ISBA, NPR Network, LegalWeek, Legal Talk Network, and the Commission on Professionalism’s blog.
He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a J.D. from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law.
Palmer currently serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign.
About the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism
The Illinois Supreme Court established the Commission on Professionalism under Supreme Court Rule 799 to promote integrity, professionalism, and civility among the lawyers and judges of Illinois, to foster a commitment to the elimination of bias and divisiveness within the legal and judicial systems, and to ensure those systems provide equitable, effective, and efficient resolution of problems for the people of Illinois.
The Commission achieves this mission through professional responsibility CLE, lawyer-to-lawyer mentoring, legal professionalism programming, educational resources, and more. To learn more, visit 2Civility.org and follow us on social media.
Press Contact
Laura Bagby, Communications Director
312-363-6209
laura.bagby@2civility.org