Hon. Donald R. Havis is an associate judge for the Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois. He was elected to the Circuit Court by the Cook County Circuit judges in 2005.
While on the bench, Havis has held assignments in the First and Fifth Municipal Districts of the Municipal Department.
Havis completed a J.D. at Howard University School of Law in 1982.
Shortly after graduating from law school, he joined the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, where he would remain until assuming the bench in 2005. During his tenure there, Havis first began as an assistant state’s attorney handling issues involving workers’ compensation, criminal-traffic misdemeanors, preliminary hearings, felonies, grand juries, traffic, and paternity and child support. He later rose through the ranks to become supervisor of workers’ compensation claims in 1994. Then, in 1999, he was named chief of the General Litigation Division, a position he held until joining the judiciary.
Havis served as president of the Chicago Chapter of the National Black Prosecutors Association.
