Thomas A. Moran
Founders Group
Thomas Moran received a partial academic education and due to his precocious speaking and debating skills, began studying law as a 20-year old. To pay for tuition at the Albany Law School in upstate New York, he taught school during the winters, a harbinger of his later academic career. As a professional, he was considered by many to be at the head of the Chicago Bar. Moran was the first Irish-American ever elected to the Cook County bench, when he was elected one of the judges of its Circuit Court in 1879. He enjoyed re-elections to the Circuit Court and in 1885 was appointed Justice of the Appellate Court by the Supreme Court (of Illinois?).
In 1892 Moran resigned as judge to take up the practice of law in the firm Moran, Kraus, Mayer and Stein. He then became dean of the Chicago College of Law, giving lectures there on the practice of law. His long experience, both as a judge and an attorney, made him an especially valuable faculty member for the Chicago College of Law. He was popular with students, as well as with other attorneys and judges.