The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) has levied charges against a former Republican Illinois Attorney General candidate.
The ARDC filed a 6-count misconduct complaint against Greenville-based Attorney Thomas DeVore. DeVore ran for Illinois Attorney General as a Republican in 2022 against incumbent Kwame Raoul. DeVore was behind several high-profile legal challenges to the state’s COVID-19 response and was an outspoken opponent to Governor J.B. Pritzker during the Covid-19 mitigations and mandates.
According to the complaint, DeVore had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a client, had a conflict of interest via an improper business transaction, filed frivolous litigation, had conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, and had improper contact with an individual he knew to be represented by legal counsel.
The filing stems from an ongoing battle that DeVore has had with a former client, girlfriend, and business partner Riley Craig of Springfield. DeVore was sanctioned by a federal bankruptcy judge in October for violating an automatic stay in a bankruptcy case of a business that Craig and DeVore co-owned.
The opinion in that case was forwarded to the ARDC, and is much of the basis of the current allegations in the complaint.
In a response to the filing yesterday, DeVore said that Craig blackmailed him and that was she was a “vengeful, hateful” person. DeVore says he will now have to defend himself at an ARDC hearing on allegations against “intentional acts of hate and spite from an extremely troubled individual.”
DeVore faces up to disbarment if he is found liable of any of the counts in the complaint. A hearing date on the matter has not been listed.