Sandra Jones Worked Extensively in Civil Rights Law for Cook County

    CHICAGO, IL, March 06, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Sandra Jones has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.

As a lawyer for the Circuit Court of Cook County, The Honorable Sandra Yvonne Jones has spent her career immersed in civil rights law. To prepare her for the rigors of the legal field, she earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois in 1975.

Ms. Jones was one of a group of students that was offered a scholarship to Valparaiso University Law School. She had a degree in psychology, and she had published in psychology at the undergraduate level and had won a psychology award. She was on her way to graduate school when they offered her the opportunity of a free ride to go to law school. That's how she ended up in law, and in her second year of law school, she was given a temporary license to practice law so she could help out in the Porter County Prosecutor's Office as a legal assistant. She was the only African American assistant at that time. Ms. Jones earned a JD from Valparaiso University in 1977.

She quickly advanced in the field, becoming a legal counsel to the Cook County Legal Assistant's Office for three years. By 1981, she became an administrative law judge for the Human Rights Commission of Chicago, and she held that role until 1985.

Ms. Jones became an assistant regional civil rights counsel for the Office of Civil Rights through the U.S. Department of Education in 1985 and a supervising attorney for the Office of the Public Guardian in Chicago in 1987. She held both of these roles until 1994, when she became a judicial hearing officer for the Domestic Relations Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County. She remains in that role to this day.

Ms. Jones attributes her success to her mentor, Thomas Grippano, who was very helpful in her first assignment. She was assigned to work in the western suburbs of Chicago, and at that time, they didn't have any African-American attorneys in those townships. He helped her navigate through people who had never dealt with females, let alone African-American females in that role.

Ms. Jones is most proud of the fact that, through her career, she was able to see all of the state of Illinois. When she was with the Human Rights Commission, she had to go within 100 miles of each civil rights violation to hear cases. This meant that she was able to see some of the far-flung parts of that state. She had the opportunity to meet various individuals who had never really met anyone like her, and they saw that she was not as foreign as they had thought.

Ms. Jones is building up a legacy of hard work and dedication, and it is precisely that type of legacy that she hopes to leave behind to future generations. She hopes that legal professionals to come will look to her example and be inspired to repeat her success for themselves.

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