Hon. Melissa S. Barnhart (Ret.) was a circuit judge for the 23rd Judicial Circuit Court of Illinois in Kendall County. She was elected to the position in 2012. Barnhart retired in 2022.
The 23rd Judicial Circuit Court includes DeKalb and Kendall Counties.
She began her judicial career as an associate judge for the 16th Judicial Circuit Court in DeKalb County in 2009 prior to the creation of the 23rd Judicial Circuit in 2012.
Before joining the bench, she was a partner at Pilmer & Barnhart, P.C. (2006 to 2009). Barnhart had first joined the firm as a partner in 1996 but left to serve as the State’s Attorney for Kendall County in 2005, though she only held the post briefly. Barnhart returned to the firm the following year. She began her prosecutorial career as an assistant state’s attorney there in 1986 and remained in that capacity for ten years.
Barnhart received a B.A. from Illinois State University in 1982. She went on to complete a J.D. at the John Marshall Law School (now the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law) in 1986. Barnhart was admitted to practice in Illinois (1986) and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
She and her husband, Keith, have two children.