Judge Fredrick H. Bates is Chairperson of the RYC Board of Directors and Chairs of the Board’s Governance and Human Resources Committees. Professionally he is a Judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County assigned to the Sixth Municipal District (Markham Courthouse). Prior to being appointed to the bench by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2015, he served as an Administrative Law Judge for over 15 years. Fred was also the General Counsel for Henry Booth House, a not-for-profit social service agency, a position he held since 1987. (CEO in 2005). His employment background includes clerking on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, being an associate at a major Chicago law firm, an equity partner at two large law firms, and president of a minority-owned corporate law firm.

Fred has been exceedingly active in the community for over 30 years, and has served on over 20 non-profit boards. He is a member of St. Dorothy’s Catholic Church on the south side of Chicago. He coached youth basketball for 15 years and is a founding Director of Swish Dreams Sports & Education Foundation.

Judge Bates attended Mendel Catholic High School where he has the distinction of being the youngest graduate in school history (15 years old) and a member of their Hall of Fame. He matriculated Marquette University when he was 18 years old. Fred attended Creighton University School of Law where he was an Editor on the Law Review. He graduated magna cum laude.

He has been married for 30 years to Lolita (I.T. Manager, Ace Hardware Corp.), and they have two children: Robert (29, a pediatric cancer survivor, 2011 graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and 2018 Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Northwestern University); and Genevieve (27, a 2012 graduate of Yale University, and PhD. candidate at the University of Chicago-Comparative Politics-Master’s Degree Awarded 2017). Both children attended Frances Xavier Warde Elementary School, and St. Ignatius College Preparatory High School, in Chicago.