New Commission Members
The Commission on IOLTA welcomes new members Erek L. Barron, John Anthony Carreras, and Justice Thomas L. Kilbride for the 2015-2016 bar year.
Erek L. Barron is a co-founder of the Administrative Law & Regulatory Litigation and White Collar Criminal Defense & Investigations practice groups of the law firm of Whiteford Taylor & Preston LLP in Bethesda, Maryland. He also represents Prince George’s County in the Maryland House of Delegates, serving on the Health & Government Operations Committee. In addition to his elected position, Mr. Barron has served in several governmental capacities, including as a state and federal prosecutor, the counsel and policy advisory to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, and an appointee to the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team.
Mr. Barron has been a member of the Board of Directors for the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, Inc. since 2006. Additionally, he has been active in the American Bar Association (including as a member of the House of Delegates from 2008-2010 and a member of the Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants from 2009-2012), National Bar Association, Maryland State Bar Association, and J. Franklyn Bourne Bar Association. In 2010, he was awarded the Maryland Equal Justice Associates’ Leadership Award. He has also received both the “Prince George’s County Social Innovation Fund, 40 under 40” award (2013) and the “National Bar Association Impact, Best Advocates under 40” award (2012).
John Anthony Carreras is a contracts manager at the Catholic Health Institute for Research and Innovation in Denver, Colorado. Prior to this position, Mr. Carreras worked as a contracts attorney for the University of Colorado-Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, as well as a fellow within the Office of the University Counsel for the University of Denver. He also has served as a judicial fellow in the Jefferson County District Court in Golden, Colorado and a judicial intern in the Douglas County District Court in Castle Rock, Colorado. From 2013-2015, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association.
Mr. Carreras graduated from the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law in 2012 and is a current university candidate for a master’s degree in economics. While in law school, he served as President of the Student Bar Association from 2010-2011 and Chief of Staff from 2011-2012. In addition, he served as the ABA Young Lawyers Division Representative from 2009-2011.
Justice Thomas L. Kibride has been a member of the Illinois Supreme Court since 2000 and has served as the court’s liaison to the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois since 2006. In 2010, he was elected by his colleagues to serve as Chief Justice for a three-year term that ended in October 2013. During his tenure as Chief Justice, the court created the state’s Access to Justice Commission to enhance access to the courts for poor and vulnerable residents of Illinois. Also, in 2012, he was appointed to serve a three-year term on the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants.
Prior to his service on the Illinois Supreme Court, Justice Kilbride engaged in the general practice of law for 20 years in Rock Island, Illinois. He is a past board member, past president, and past vice-president of the Illinois Township Attorneys Association and a past volunteer lawyer and charter member of the Illinois Pro Bono Center. He has also served as a volunteer legal advisor for both the Community Caring Conference and Quad City Harvest, Inc., and he is a past member of the Rock Island Human Relations Commission.