Judge Linda Colfax is in her 15^th year at the San Francisco Superior Court and has presided over nearly every type of courtroom assignment.  She currently presides over felony criminal trials and parole court.   Judge Colfax has been an IALGBTQ+ board member for over 10 years and previously served as the Vice President.  In her home state, Judge Colfaxchairs the statewide Judicial Fairness Coalition and her local court’s judicial mentorship program and elimination of bias and inequality committees.

Judge Colfax earned her BA from Harvard College in 1990 and her JD from the University of Michigan in 1996.  Judge Colfax and her wife have 2 adult children, 2 dogs, and 2 chickens.

Jill Rose Quinn has an extensive legal background in the private sector. She has a lifelong dedication to community service. After graduating from The John Marshall Law School in 1983, she worked for small law firms including one in which she represented local government units. Throughout her career, she handled over 4,000 cases. Jill started her own practice in 1997 and focused on helping neighborhood residents with financial challenges, family law matters, small business operations, probate and criminal law. Throughout her life Jill has believed in giving back to others. Before moving to Chicago, she was a community organizer in disadvantaged areas in Houston and Des Moines and helped form neighborhood action groups dedicated to solving problems such as lack of zoning and dangerous traffic; at the statewide level, she helped organize on utility and taxation issues. Her compassion for others and sense of fairness is what helped inspire Jill to practice law. As a child, she realized that many people were not treated equally under the law because of their race, religion or nationality. Jill decided then that she wanted to be a lawyer to fight for all people’s rights and equality. Being transgender has taught Jill firsthand what it is like to be marginalized and the vital importance of treating all people with fairness, decency and compassion. In November of 2020, Jill was elected to the office of Cook County Circuit Court Judge. She is the first openly transgender circuit court judge in the State of Illinois and the first openly transgender elected official in the State of Illinois. She is currently serving in the Domestic Relations Division, County Department. Her perspective as a member of the transgender community and as a sole practitioner bring a unique dimension to the Cook County Bench.

Judge Ashely M. Chan is the Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She is a 1993 graduate of Douglass College at Rutgers University where she received a B.A. in Mathematics and a 1996 graduate of Rutgers School of Law – Camden, where she received Tax Honors with Distinction and received the Rutgers Pro Bono Publico Award. Upon graduation, Judge Chan served as law clerk for the Honorable Gloria M. Burns of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. After her clerkship, she was an associate at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in the business and finance section where she focused on bankruptcy, corporate restructuring, and corporate finance. In 2001, Judge Chan joined, and ultimately became a shareholder at, Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin and concentrated her practice in the areas of bankruptcy and corporate restructuring.  She has received numerous recognitions, including being selected as a Leader in Bankruptcy/ Restructuring by Chambers USA, a Best Lawyer in America in Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights and a Pennsylvania Lawyer on the Fast Track by The Legal Intelligencer and Pennsylvania Law Weekly. 

On Oct. 1, 2014, Judge Chan was sworn in as a bankruptcy judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She is an adjunct professor at Temple Law School where she teaches a course on commercial bankruptcy practice and procedure. Judge Chan is passionate about increasing diversity in the legal profession and has participated in numerous diversity programs including the Roadways to the Bench event held in Philadelphia in April 2023 which encouraged diverse law students to consider becoming federal judges. She recently came out as a queer woman and is a member of the International Association of LGBTQ+ Judges and mentors queer law students from local law schools. She loves to spend time in nature with her 2 dogs.

The Honorable Elizabeth A. Garry was appointed as the 16th Presiding Justice of the  Appellate Division, Third Department in New York State on January 1, 2018; she had  been appointed as an Associate Justice of that court in March of 2009. She was first  elected to serve on the trial court as a NYS Supreme Court Justice in the judicial district  encompassing central NY in 2006 and was reelected in 2020. She had previously been  twice elected and served as Town Justice in the Town of New Berlin from 2002 through  2006.  

Presiding Justice Garry graduated from Alfred University and Albany Law School,  with honors. She began her legal career as a Law Clerk to a Justice of the NYS Supreme  Court and was thereafter engaged in private practice with the Joyce Law Firm, practicing  throughout Central New York for roughly a dozen years before taking the bench full  time. 

Presiding Justice Garry is a founding Co-Chair and current Commissioner of the  Richard C. Failla LGBTQ Commission of the New York Courts. She is also a long-time  board member of the International Association of LGBTQ+ Judges, and currently serves  as the President of its Foundation, established to support the Judge Paul G. Feinman  Scholarship, which is awarded annually to law students. Presiding Justice Garry is also a  Trustee of Albany Law School and was a founding member of a chapter of the Women’s  Bar Association of the State of New York. She has served on various other boards,  community and cultural organizations and professional associations throughout her career.

Judge Phyllis R. Williams serves on the State Court of DeKalb County in Georgia. Prior to her State Court appointment, Judge Williams served as an Associate Judge in the DeKalb Magistrate Court in 2009, where she presided over civil and criminal matters, served on the Magistrate Court Training Council and Curriculum Committee, and she trained Magistrate Judges around the State. Judge Williams is an active member of the DeKalb Bar Association, DeKalb Lawyers Association, Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, Stonewall Bar Association, Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys, and Georgia Association of Women Attorneys. Judge Williams has also served on the Board of Directors for the South DeKalb YWCA, is a graduate of Leadership DeKalb (2003), and is a member of the Leadership DeKalb Beacon Society.

Judge Williams began her legal career practicing insurance defense and practiced as a trial attorney for over 25 years. She has tried complex divorces, personal injury litigation, contract disputes, and criminal defense cases.  As a trial attorney, Judge Williams believed “everyone is entitled to zealous representation, even if they cannot afford it.” To that end, she incorporated work as a court appointed attorney into her firm’s practice which led her to representing clients in trials and appeals and has argued before the Supreme Court of Georgia.  In addition to her law practice, Judge Williams served as an Administrative Hearing Officer for the DeKalb Merit System as well as an adjunct professor at Georgia State University College of Law. 

Phyllis graduated from Florida State University College of Law and the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Music in piano performance.  She and is a classically trained pianist, and she loves to cook and travel internationally.  She fancies herself as an amateur culinary genius and loves to cook international dishes.  Phyllis also played racquetball competitively and has won two (2) gold medals in the Georgia Games.

Bryon M. Large serves as Colorado’s Presiding Disciplinary Judge.  He received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Denver and his undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico.  Prior to his current appointment, Judge Large served as a magistrate in Adams County, Colorado, primarily assigned to civil and domestic dockets.  Judge Large’s prior experience includes work as trial attorney at the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, and he spent nearly ten years in private practice as an immigration lawyer.

Throughout his career, Judge Large has dedicated time to involvement in the legal profession, including with the Colorado Bar Association and in several of Colorado’s diversity bar associations.  He served as President of the Colorado LGBT Bar Association and held leadership positions in the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association, the CBA Executive Committee, the CBA Immigration Section, and with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, both nationally and locally. 

Judge Large currently serves on the boards of the International Association of LGBTQ+ Lawyers and the National Council of Lawyer Disciplinary Boards. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.