The Chicago Board of Education appointed Park Ridge native Elizabeth Barton as its permanent top attorney effective April 23.
The board governs the Chicago Public School system and is currently made up of a mix of elected members and members appointed by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. It will be transitioning to a fully-elected board next year.
Barton has been serving as the board’s acting general counsel since August 2025. She first joined the board’s law department as a senior assistant general counsel in 2019 and worked her way up. Her duties included overseeing board litigation, transactions and investigations.
Before then, Barton spent 11 years working for several law firms that provided legal advice to public sector clients. She served as an adjunct professor at what is now the University of Illinois Law School from 2019 to 2021. Barton currently serves as treasurer for the Executive Committee of the Federal Bar Association Chicago Chapter, and acts as a mentor for law students and young lawyers through both the Chicago and Federal Bar associations.
She holds a Juris Doctor degree from UIC Law School (when it was still known as the John Marshall Law School).
Barton grew up in Park Ridge and is a Maine South High School alumna.
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