David Butler ’76, M.S. ’86, an Illinois State University Politics and Government alum and a retired judge, was recently awarded the Pro Bono Service Award. The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) Board of Directors met in Chicago on July 13, 2022, and presented the award to Butler for his volunteer work in Prairie State Legal Services’ (PSLS) Bloomington office. Butler has helped 165 clients over his three years of volunteering with PSLS. He also was instrumental in creating PSLS’s eviction court help desk in the McLean County Law and Justice Center.

Butler graduated from Illinois State with his B.S. in 1976 and his M.S. in 1986. He earned his law degree from Southern Illinois University School of Law in Carbondale in 1980. He was an associate judge on the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court of Illinois. He was reappointed in 2011 and 2015. He retired December 5, 2018.