The Honorable David A. Erickson Associate Director of the Trial Advocacy Program, Director of the Program in Criminal Litigation and Senior Instructor

Justice Erickson teaches Evidence, Criminal Procedure and Trial Advocacy. He began teaching at Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1983 as an adjunct professor. In September 2006, he joined the full-time faculty as a senior lecturer and associate director of the school's nationally recognized Trial Advocacy Program. Under Justice Erickson's direction, Chicago-Kent teams have won numerous regional and national trial advocacy competitions.

In 2008, Justice Erickson coached the third Chicago-Kent team to win the National Trial Competition, which is recognized as the national title among law schools. Justice Erickson also coached the first (1988) and second (2007) Chicago-Kent teams to win the national title. The 2007 and 2008 victories made Chicago-Kent one of the few schools to win the championship in two years in a row.

Before joining the bench, Justice Erickson started his career as a prosecutor in the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. From 1977 to 1983, he supervised units that prosecuted defendants accused of gang crimes, white collar crimes and other felonies. During that period, he tried more than 100 jury cases to verdict. In 1984, he left for private practice, concentrating in medical malpractice defense.

In 1988, he was appointed to the bench and served for the next nine years as a felony trial court judge and as supervising judge in the criminal courts.

In 1996, he left the bench when he was appointed first assistant state's attorney of Cook County. For the next five years he managed a staff of more than 1,000 attorneys, overseeing the nation's second largest prosecutor's office. During his tenure, Justice Erickson created a Domestic Violence Division and a Community Prosecution Unit, while increasing the office's focus on hate crimes, crimes against children, and violent crimes.

In 2001, he went back to the bench, sitting at the Juvenile Justice Center as an acting-presiding and trial judge. In 2005, he was appointed to the Appellate Court of Illinois, 1st District, where he served until his retirement.

Currently, in addition to teaching and coaching, Justice Erickson is a consultant to the Department of Law and Civil Rights Litigation of the city of Chicago's Corporation Counsel's office, the Chicago Police Department and the University of Chicago Hospitals.

Justice Erickson earned his J.D. from The John Marshall Law School and a B.A. in political science from Northern Illinois University. He is a frequent lecturer and speaker for the Chicago Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association, and American Bar Association. He has been a faculty member of the National Judicial College, the University of Nevada, the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, DePaul University School of Law, The John Marshall Law School, and the American College of Trial Lawyers.