Michael Coppedge, Jeffrey Hirsch sworn in as McHenry County judges

WOODSTOCK – Two longtime lawyers stood before their family and peers, rose their right hands and took an oath of office to become McHenry County's newest associate judges.

The newly minted judges, Michael Coppedge, of Crystal Lake, and Jeffrey Hirsch of Woodstock, officially were sworn in on Tuesday, although Chief Judge Michael Sullivan joked of the legal documents they signed in the past week or so before the installation ceremony: "It was legal."

"It's clear to me these two gentlemen get it," Sullivan said, addressing the standing room-only crowd. "They get what it means to be a judge. It's a service. A service to the law, and a service to the community."

Coppedge, a former partner at the law firm Cowlin, Naughton, Curran and Coppedge, will be seated in the specialty courts presiding over prove ups and child support cases.

"I am honored and humbled and a good measure scared to death," he said, laughing.

Hirsch, a former associate with The Gitlin Law Firm, will preside over traffic matters. He joked that his being selected from a pool of 18 potential applicants, "must be what it feels like to be drafted into the NHL. First round."

"Like a newly drafted rookie, I'm eager to get to work for the home team in the McHenry County 22nd Judicial Circuit."

The vacancies on the bench were the result of two retirements this year from Judge Gordon Graham and Judge Robert Bearderstadt. Associate judges are selected by the Court's eight elected circuit judges.