The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Circuit Judge David L. Vancil, Jr. has been re-elected Chief Judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit.
Vancil was first elected Chief Judge on September 25, 2015; re-elected on September 22, 2017; and again on September 27, 2019 by his fellow Circuit Judges to a two-year term as Chief Judge.
Judge Vancil served as Assistant Public Defender in Knox County, Assistant State's Attorney in Warren County, and as Henderson County State's Attorney from 1996 until his appointment as Resident Circuit Judge of Henderson County in 2002.
In November, 2002, Vancil was elected Circuit Judge, and has since held that position.
Vancil graduated from Southern High School, Stronghurst, in 1986, and in 1990 he received a Bachelor of Science degree from Illinois State University in Normal.
He attended Southern Illinois University College of Law, and received his Juris Doctor in 1993.
Judge Vancil was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Illinois Judges Association and currently serves on the Illinois Judicial College Committee on Circuit Clerk Education.
Judge Vancil is also the chair of the Criminal Procedure Committee and a member of the Special Committee to Review Standardized Forms of the Conference of Chief Circuit Judges.
The Ninth Circuit is comprised of Fulton, Hancock, Henderson, Knox, McDonough and Warren Counties.
Judge Vancil and his wife, Kelli, reside in their home in Little York, and are the parents of four grown children.
He is the son of Margaret Vancil and her husband the late David Vancil Sr. of Stronghurst.