Eileen O'Neill Burke earned her B.A. degree from University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 1987 and her law degree from Chicago- Kent College of Law in 1990. She worked as a Cook County State's Attorney for 10 years, and then had her own practice focusing on criminal defense until her election to the Cook County Circuit Court in 2008. Judge Burke served in the Law Division until her election to the Appellate Court in 2016.