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Judith Dever’s top piece of advice for law students is to take advantage of internship and externship opportunities, even if those opportunities fall outside their practice areas of interest. After all, as Dever learned in the early stages of her own career, those areas of interest can be a moving target.
“I wanted to be a health law attorney when I graduated from law school,” Dever says. “I never knew that I would become a labor and employment lawyer. But I followed a certain trajectory that led me to that path, and I ended up never working in the health law field at all.”
Unexpected as her direction may have been, Dever has found no shortage of fulfillment in her thirty years of practice. She spent much of that time in public service before accepting her first in-house role in 2021. Today, as director of legal counsel, litigation, and employment at global real estate company JLL, she leverages many of the same skills that she honed while working in government—with a corporate twist.
“The great thing about government work is that you get a lot of hands-on experience. My first day, I watched a trial. My second day, I handled a trial myself.”
Judith Dever
Just a few years after graduating from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Dever joined the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. The position afforded her a chance to hit the ground running in a way that may not have been possible in a law firm setting.
“The great thing about government work is that you get a lot of hands-on experience,” Dever says. “My first day, I watched a trial. My second day, I handled a trial myself.”
Dever followed up her stint as an assistant state’s attorney with a position in the labor and employment division of the Chicago Board of Education’s Law Department and the drug and gang house division of the City of Chicago Department of Law. Upon her subsequent promotion to deputy of the labor division, she began overseeing a team of twenty-five attorneys and support staff, who handled a wide range of employment and labor matters for the city.
Then, Dever made the bold decision to move in-house. Even though her public service days are now behind her, she looks back on what she was able to accomplish in government with pride. “I was one of several lawyers who helped the City of Chicago navigate the very beginning of the COVID crisis. I was also on the advisory committee for the Chicago Police Department’s consent decree in federal court,” she says. “Those are two areas where I really feel that I made an impact, hopefully for the better.”
Furthermore, Dever carried those experiences with her to JLL. In her current role as director, she continues to manage diverse employment cases, whether they be lawsuits and charges that require her to bring in outside counsel or threat letters that the company can investigate internally.
Despite the similarities in case types and legal processes, Dever has needed to make a major adjustment to her perspective since moving in-house. “The biggest difference for me is that I used to deal with only Illinois state laws. At JLL, a Fortune 200 company that is global, we have to consider all the laws throughout the United States, as well as international laws,” she explains. “That was—and is—a major learning curve.”
“If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from my thirty years of being a lawyer, it’s the truth of the saying, ‘Humans plan, and God laughs.’ I try to keep my plans loose and be open to new opportunities.”
Judith Dever
What’s more? Dever has dedicated time to learning the business and getting to know her colleagues across the various business lines, too. She and her two direct colleagues partner closely with both the business lines and HR to ensure that JLL is positioned for success. “We get questions all over the board about federal and state laws on many different kinds of issues,” she says. “You name it, and we’ve probably seen it in the employment realm.”
To answer those questions, Dever and her colleagues often conduct research into the latest rules and laws in relevant jurisdictions. The acts of gaining knowledge and deepening her understanding of the law and the business alike will remain constants for Dever in years to come. Another one is her commitment to sharing the lessons that she has already learned with the next generation of attorneys.
In fact, Dever encourages aspiring lawyers to join bar associations and attend events to build their networks. She also emphasizes the value of mentorship, which can come in the form of supervisors or other attorneys who might be in a position to foster career growth.
Dever offers a final lesson that encapsulates her professional experiences up to this point, from her initial foray into the labor and employment field to her recent and rewarding pivot in-house: “If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from my thirty years of being a lawyer, it’s the truth of the saying, ‘Humans plan, and God laughs,’” she says, laughing herself. “I try to keep my plans loose and be open to new opportunities.”
“Judy consistently impresses me with her adeptness at unraveling intricate legal matters, while simultaneously fostering relationships and reassuring her in-house clients. She has also managed numerous major cases and always manages to exude a sense of calm and control. During her tenure at JLL, Judy’s impact has been substantial and invaluable. We are grateful for our successful, long-standing partnership with Judy and JLL.”
–Tiffany Fordyce, Shareholder
