Hon. William J. Borah worked as an Administrative Law Judge for the Illinois Human Rights Commission from 2009 until his reirement in June of 2025.  Prior to his appointment, Judge Borah spent 27 years in private practice, mostly concentrating on employment matters for both employees and employers.  He began his legal career with East Arkansas Legal Services in Helena, Arkansas, representing indigent clients in civil rights cases.  Following that position, Judge Borah worked as an associate at a private law firm in Anchorage, Alaska, where he represented a diverse cliental and won a state habeas corpus constitutional case. 

Judge Borah has held many bar leadership positions here in Illinois.  From 2005-2006, Judge Borah served as Chair of the Illinois State Bar Association’s Labor & Employment Law Section Council, returning to that position from 2014-2015.  He is seminar speaker, an ISBA Bar Journal author, a trial judge for moot court competitions, and a recipient of numerous acknowledgements, including a recognition by the Howard Brown Health Center for his pro bono legal services during the AIDS epidemic, the ISBA for his efforts to pass the 2006 sexual orientation amendment of the Human Rights Act, and by the Gay Lesbian Student Teacher Network (GLSTN) for filing one of the first national cases against school bullying (Mario Doe case).  In addition, the South Suburban Bar Association (SSBA) awarded him its President’s Award for leadership in reinstating an active Pro Bono Program in the 6^th District, Markham Courthouse.  The SSBA then elected him to its progressive leadership ladder, where he spearheaded the county-wide cause for “extended suburban jurisdiction,” which preserved the hearing of domestic and family law cases in suburban courts. 

In 2023, the ISBA announced that Judge Borah was the recipient of the Elmer Gertz Human and Civil Rights Award, which recognizes “long standing, continuing, and exceptional commitment by an individual or organization to the protection or advancement of Human Rights.”

Several of Judge Borah’s recent decisions have received local and national attention, including Sommerville vs Hobby Lobby Stores, IHRC, ALS No. 13-0060C, May 15, 2015 & February 2, 2016, upheld by the Illinois Appellate Court in Hobby Lobby v. Sommerville, IL App. Ct., 2d Dist., No. 2-19-0362, 8/13/21.  Sommerville was a case of first impression in Illinois, addressing a transgender employee’s right to enter a restroom of her sexual identity.  Judge Borah also decided the leading school case on transgender students in Michael S. & Andrea S., on behalf of P.S., a minor, and Komorek School District #94, IHRC, ALS No. 16-0003, February 4, 2019.  As noted above, Judge Borah filed one of the first national cases addressing school bullying, after which the students Judge Borah represented were invited to speak on the Oprah Winfrey Show.  Mario Doe v. Riverside Brookfield High School, et al. (Settled).)

As a young man Judge Borah moved to Memphis Tennessee from Calumet City, Illinois, to attend college a year after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.  In college, he became heavily involved with the civil rights movement in the South.  In addition, he was elected to several college student government offices, including his election as Chair of the Tennessee Delegation of the National Student Association following the Kent State killings.  Judge Borah would go on to organize a national march on Washington D.C. against the Vietnam War.

At play, he fishes, in Alaska Judge Borah caught a 112 lb. halibut; as a hiker, he climbed Mt. Borah, until the 11,300 foot mark, that’s when the trek turned into a vertical climb, and he recalled he was from Illinois.