Sarah Gallagher Chami continues DeKalb County family legacy during associate judge swearing-in

SYCAMORE – Sarah Gallagher Chami said she was born into a life of public service, so it was a full circle moment to be sworn in among a crowded courtroom Friday as the newest associate judge for the 23rd Judicial Circuit Court.

Gallagher Chami was officially sworn in Feb. 7. However, a formal investiture ceremony was held Friday among her friends, family and colleagues in courtroom 300 at the DeKalb County Courthouse in Sycamore since COVID-19 guidelines have since been lifted. Her appointment filled the vacancy left by former associate judge Joseph Pedersen who was appointed to the circuit court, which serves DeKalb and Kendall counties, in January.

Gallagher Chami gave an emotional speech as she donned the robe of her father, the late Judge T. Jordan Gallagher, who served on the bench from 2008 to 2011 in the then 16th Judicial Circuit Court in DeKalb and Kane counties. A DeKalb native, Jordan Gallagher was also a former DeKalb County State’s Attorney, serving terms from 1976 to 1984, and a recognized name throughout legal circles in northern Illinois. Judge Gallagher died at 63 on June 25, 2011 after a short battle with cancer.

“There can be no doubt in addition to her family and friends, Sarah deeply loves two things – the law and this courthouse,” said Circuit Court Judge Marcy Buick. “She was raised in the law and she was raised in this courthouse. This is a remarkable lineage and a great legacy.”

After being sworn in by Chief Judge Bradley Waller, Gallagher Chami spoke of her time as a child under the eye of a state’s attorney after his wife, her mother Debra Gallagher, died when she was two. She recalled roaming the rooms of the courthouse under the tutelage of the law and the ‘village’ her father gathered around the pair.

“It is not lost on me that I have come back to the place where my view of the community and of the justice system began,” Gallagher Chami said. “I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly of what the justice system looked like. And I knew that I wanted to be a part of that process. I knew I wanted to serve the people of DeKalb County.

Buick called Gallagher Chami’s law career extensive. A graduate of DePaul University and the Chicago Kent College of Law, Gallagher Chami worked as a prosecutor in both DeKalb and Cook counties. She worked in civil law for a time in the Sycamore-based office of Turner & Sackett, and then as a partner in Sycamore-based defense attorney law firm Dixon and Gallagher.

“It is no secret to those gathered here today that Sarah is well respected by her peers and within the larger DeKalb County community,” Buick said. “Anyone who has worked with Sarah knows that she is a gifted communicator. She is decisive, she is fair, attributes that are essential for a judge. She puts people at ease because she is always caring and friendly.”

After her time as an assistant state’s attorney in Cook County more than a decade ago, Gallagher Chami said she and her husband, Elie, moved back to the community so their children could call it home.

To her family outside of the courtroom and those gathered in person Friday, including husband, Elie Chami, son Michael, daughters Norah, Sophia and Elena, she said: “You are the foundation of the person I am today.”

“It has struck me many times in my short three months on the bench that the impact we as judges [have] is immense,” Gallagher Chami said. “This is a heavy burden placed on our judges and I am humbly grateful that the circuit judges of the 23rd judicial circuit chose me to continue in those footsteps.”