Jarrett Knox is a career public servant, with a broad range of experience in public service and public interest work. He has over 16 years of experience in a courtroom setting. Jarrett currently serves as a Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney in the Child Protection Division, where he prosecutes civil petitions filed on behalf of abused, neglected, or dependent children. His commitment to the child welfare system runs deep. From 2011-2018, Jarrett worked as an attorney for the Cook County Public Guardian’s Office, where he represented children involved in Child Protection cases as both their attorney and their guardian ad litem, representing to the Court both what the child wished and what was in their best interest. Additionally, Jarrett has experience in administrative law, serving as an Administrative Law Judge with the Illinois Department of Human Services from 2018-2019.
For over 15 years, Jarrett and his family have been licensed foster parents with a top-rate child welfare agency right in their community of Oak Park, Hephzibah Children’s Association. As licensed foster parents, Jarrett and his family have fostered children for periods of time ranging from a few days, to a few weeks, up to a year at a time.
Jarrett has seen firsthand the importance of judges who approach each case with fairness, patience, and a deep understanding of the law’s impact on real people. As a licensed foster parent, he has a personal perspective on how the court system affects families across Cook County. That experience reinforced for him that decisions in this area aren’t just legal – they’re profoundly human, with lifelong consequences.
Jarrett is committed to equal access to justice for everyone. From 2008-2011, Jarrett worked as a public interest lawyer in legal aid organizations in Chicago committed to providing representation to survivors of Domestic Violence and Elder Abuse.
Jarrett is deeply connected to his community not only as a licensed foster parent but also as a volunteer with community organizations, including a hunger-relief program, and is a volunteer youth basketball coach. He is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, where he has been actively involved in the Lawyers in the Classroom program for several years, as well as serving as a mentor to law students.
Jarrett lives with his wife and three amazing kids in Oak Park, where his wife teaches and his kids attend public school.