Honorable Allen S. Goldberg

Cook County Circuit Court Judge

Honorable Allen S. Goldberg has been an active member of RSI’s Executive Committee since 2004, applying the expertise in ADR he has gained while serving on the bench of the Cook County, Illinois, Circuit Court. Judge Goldberg was elected Circuit Judge of Cook County in 1992. After serving seven years in the Domestic Relations Division, he heard commercial litigation disputes for 10 years and currently serves in the Jury Section of the Law Division. He has trained to become a Certified Mediator in both civil and domestic relation cases at the National Judicial College, and he has conducted numerous trials and settlement conferences using his mediation skills. In 2003, Judge Goldberg headed a committee that wrote the rules for Court-Annexed Mediation in Cook County’s Law Division. He currently serves as the director of a monthly education program for judges, lawyers and ADR practitioners that deals with mediation and arbitration issues. In the past, Judge Goldberg directed the 40-hour mediation training program for sitting judges in the Circuit Court of Cook County and acted as a faculty member for this program.

Judge Goldberg speaks frequently about the Cook County Court-Annexed Mediation Program, as well as other mediation-related topics, for the Illinois State Bar Association, the Chicago Bar and West Suburban Bar Associations, the Illinois Judges Association and at the Illinois Judicial Conference in 2010. He also has spoken about mediation on a cable television show sponsored by the Illinois Judges Association. In addition, he served on the Council of Chief Judges Ad Hoc Committee on the New Supreme Court Child Custody Rules, which proposed recommendation for rules that circuits can use as guides when developing their own child custody and visitation mediation programs in accordance with Illinois Supreme Court Rule 905.

Judge Goldberg graduated in 1964 from the University of Illinois with a B.S. in Accounting and received his J.D. from DePaul in 1967. In addition to serving on the RSI Executive Committee, he sits on the Board of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR). Judge Goldberg also has been a member and Chair of the ISBA Civil Practice and Procedure Committee (2001 – 2012) and a member of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee (2005 – 2012), and he was Chairman of the CBA Commercial Litigation Committee (2007). Additionally, he is President of the American College of Business Court Judges, and is a board member of the International Academy of Mediators and Arbitrators.