Ogle County’s Clayton Lindsey making a run for circuit judge

OREGON – Ogle County Associate Judge Clayton Lindsey is running for circuit judge for the 15th Judicial Circuit, hoping to replace Judge Robert Hanson, who retires Nov. 30 after 16 years on the bench.

The 15th serves Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Carroll and JoDaviess counties.

Lindsey was appointed to the bench in October 2016 and serves primarily in Ogle County, although he also has heard cases in Carroll, Stephenson, Lee, JoDaviess and Kane counties.

Before that, he was a partner with WilliamsMcCarthy LLP, with offices in Oregon and Rockford.

As an associate judge, he has handled civil and criminal cases. He also is one of two judges assigned to Ogle County drug and DUI courts.

Lindsey began his legal career with a Chicago firm that primarily represented municipalities and school districts. He moved to Rockford and joined Hinshaw Culbertson as a litigator, transferring to Williams McCarthy in 1994 where he led the firm’s litigation practice in its Oregon office.

He handled a variety of family law, personal injury, commercial litigation, and employment cases and was the Byron city attorney from 2000 until 2016.

Lindsey received his bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University in 1981 and his law degree from The John Marshall Law School in 1984.

He and his wife, Brenda, live in Byron; they have three children, Maggie, of Davis Junction, Cody, of Byron, and Molly, of Nashville, Tennessee, and five five grandchildren.

The couple volunteers as youth leaders at Cornerstone Family Church, and have taken several mission trips with high school students to the Bahamas, a North Dakota Indian reservation, Guatemala, Tecate and Minneapolis.

The primary is June 28, and the general election Nov. 8.