Robert Villa chosen as new Chief Judge for Kane County 16th Circuit

ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP – Kane County Circuit Judge Robert Villa will be the new chief judge as of Dec. 4, according to a vote of the 16th Circuit judges, officials announced in a news release.

Villa will replace Chief Judge T. Clint Hull, who is finishing his second two-year term.

Villa has presided over civil and criminal cases, recently serving as the presiding judge of the Misdemeanor/Traffic Division, according to the release.

In 2021, Villa was assigned to the Civil Law Division, where he will continue to preside until his chief judge term begins.

From 1995-1998, Villa served in the Illinois Attorney General’s Criminal Appeals Division as lead counsel on appeals involving statutory and constitutional issues before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the Supreme and Appellate courts of Illinois and the U.S. District Courts of Illinois.

After leaving government service, Villa was a litigation partner in the Chicago offices of Dykema Gossett PLLC.

In 2007, he founded the Villa Law Firm, LLC in St. Charles, which became Griffin/Villa/Williams LLP in 2011.

Villa is a 1992 graduate of the University of Illinois, Urbana, and a 1995 graduate of DePaul College of Law, according to the release.

Villa was appointed as an associate judge in April 2013. On Dec. 17, 2018, the Illinois Supreme Court appointed him circuit judge and he was elected to the Third Sub-Circuit in November 2020.

A sub-circuit is a smaller division within a judicial circuit.