By Kelly O’Brien<\/p>\n
After serving justice for more than a decade, Judge Glenn H. Collier hung up his gavel to become a more engaged grandfather.\u00a0 Read more to learn about his celebrated career in the courthouse and his life after retirement and to hear a podcast featuring his advice for future generations of legal professionals.<\/p>\n
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From gavel-bearer to grandfather <\/strong><\/p>\n A year after retiring in 2011, Judge Glenn H. Collier answered a call from a woman he didn\u2019t recognize at first.\u00a0 She requested Collier\u2019s legal services for her daughter, and he complied once he realized he had worked with this family before, eagerly agreeing to officiate the daughter\u2019s wedding more than a decade after he approved her adoption to the woman on the phone.<\/em><\/p>\n Assigned to adoption court in 1995, Collier found a profession packed with happiness in his first three years as an associate judge in the 10th Judicial Circuit of Illinois.<\/p>\n \u201cAdoptions\u2014those were joys.\u00a0 To see this child now have a family and these parents now have a child,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u201cI could have done adoptions every day of my career and just been perfectly happy.\u00a0 Those are rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n A fulfilling career in the courthouse wasn\u2019t always in Collier\u2019s plan.\u00a0 As a junior at the University of Illinois, he studied psychology until an academic advisor suggested he look at other options that interested him.<\/p>\n \u201c[My academic advisor] was my savior,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cI had always thought about being a lawyer, and the more I looked into it, the more I found that it sounded really interesting.\u00a0 I still look back and think, \u2018Thank God I didn\u2019t become a psychologist.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Turning his academic attention to law, he attended the University of Illinois<\/em> College of Law.\u00a0 After graduation he headed to Peoria where he took the position of an assistant corporation counsel for the city before becoming a founding partner of the private practice Jackson, Mitchell and Collier.<\/p>\n The city of Peoria persuaded him to return a few years later as the corporation counsel.\u00a0 Throughout his time practicing law, he hoped to climb higher on the legal ladder.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as I stepped into the courtroom for the first time and went through the proceedings, I knew that I wanted to be the person sitting up there on the bench,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cIn my mind, in whatever you do, you should aspire to be the best, and I always felt like that was the top of the legal profession.\u201d<\/p>\n Collier says he reached his professional pinnacle when he became an associate judge in 1995.\u00a0 Thousands of civil and criminal cases in Peoria and Tazewell counties and 14 years later, the Illinois Supreme Court appointed him as a circuit judge in 2009.\u00a0 With a newborn grandson living nearby and his wife\u2019s retirement approaching, he made the bittersweet decision that this would be his last term on the bench.<\/p>\n As he entered the County of Peoria Courthouse three years after retiring in 2011, he seemed at home.\u00a0 Hugging everyone in sight and sharing stories about his grandson, he clearly considered his former co-workers family.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re always smiling, they treat you with the utmost respect and they give [judges] more credit than is probably due\u201d he said. \u201cThe bailiffs, the reporters, the clerks, all the people that help you, the attorneys\u2026I love these people around here, and I miss them.\u201d<\/p>\n Getting accustomed to life outside the courtroom has proven challenging at times for Collier.<\/p>\n \u201cI do miss some of the legal drama,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cI had a professor who said that if you had never been in a courtroom or a trial, just go watch because it\u2019s better than being at a movie.\u00a0 And it is.\u201d<\/p>\n One of Collier\u2019s funniest memories in the courtroom came from a case that could have come from a Hollywood comedy.\u00a0 A man charged with indecent exposure for standing in a yard wearing nothing but a scarf over his face appeared before Collier in court representing himself.<\/p>\n \u201cThe police officer described him as looking like a ninja,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cThe defendant said, \u2018How could you tell it was me?\u00a0 My face was covered.\u2019\u00a0 I look over at the jury and they\u2019re laughing or trying their best not to.\u00a0 It was kind of comical.\u201d<\/p>\n Now retired, Collier gets his laughs from his 3-year-old grandson, who calls him \u201cUmpa.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe said the other day, \u2018Umpa, I want a sister and a boy.\u00a0 I want both of them,\u2019\u201d he chuckled.\u00a0 \u201c[My wife and I] told his parents, and they said they would like to have another child as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n After a career in which he put families together in adoption court and brought other families justice, now Collier gets to enjoy his own growing family.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Judge Collier’s advice to aspiring attorneys and judges<\/strong><\/p>\n