16TH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT
LARK COWART
Cowart is a lawyer who graduated cum laude with a law degree from Loyola University Chicago. She has a masters degree in dispute resolution from Pepperdine University School of Law and attended Strauss Institute for Dispute Resolution, where she earned Cali Awards in Arbitration Practice and Environmental & Public Policy Mediation.
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She is a public servant of Kane County, as Assistant State's Attorney for the last 14 years where she was twice nominated for Prosecutor of the Year; and as a coach and mentor to local youth.
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Cowart is also a licensed trainer in Restorative Practices, a strategy that seeks to repair relationships that have been damaged by bringing about a sense of remorse, restorative action and forgiveness.
MICHAEL NOLAND
Michael Noland maintains a sole practice in Elgin, Illinois, focusing on criminal and civil litigation. He served in the Illinois State Senate from 2007 to 2017. From 2009 – 2017 Noland served as chair of the Illinois Senate Criminal Law Committee in the Illinois General Assembly. While in the Illinois Senate, Noland also served as vice chairman of the Senate Revenue Committee, and as a member of the Senate’s Judiciary, Energy, Education and Public Health Committees. As well, he served on the governor’s committees on Pension Reform (2010) and Commission on Criminal Justice Reform (2015 to present).
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His prior legal experience includes litigating civil and criminal cases in the circuit courts of Cook and surrounding counties. He served early in his career as an Assistant Public Defender in Kane County where he was chief counsel to a putative father in a case reviewing the Department of Children and Family Services responsibility to provide services for immigrant parents. He has assisted numerous clients pro bono.
