The Hon. Lindsay A. Parkhurst is an at-large circuit judge for the 21st Judicial Circuit Court of Illinois. Parkhurst was elected to the bench on November 4, 2020.
The 21st Judicial Circuit includes Kankakee and Iroquois counties.
While on the bench, Parkhurst played a pivotal role in establishing the Kankakee County Mental Health Court in 2024.
Prior to her appointment, she was a sole practitioner in her own private practice, a law firm she opened in 2000. She supplemented her practice with service as an assistant public defender with the Kankakee County Public Defender’s Office (2005 to 2014).
Parkhurst earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1985. She then completed a J.D. at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago-Kent College of Law (1989) and an LL.M. in health law at DePaul University College of Law (1991). As a law student, she clerked for the Kankakee County State’s Attorney’s Office (1987), the Illinois Attorney General’s Office (1988), and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (1988 to 1989).
She is admitted to practice in Illinois (1989), the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (1989), and the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois (2002).
After graduating from law school, Parkhurst began her legal career as an associate at Hinshaw & Culbertson, where she handled medical malpractice defense matters. She served in that capacity until 1997, at which time she became a litigation associate at O’Hagan, Smith & Amundsen in Chicago.
Her memberships have included the Illinois House of Representatives, representing the 79th District (2017 to 2020).
Raised in Kankakee, Illinois, Parkhurst and her husband have one daughter.
She is registered as a Republican.
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