Mr. Orsey graduated from University of Illinois with a B.A. degree with high honors in 1976. He received his law degree in 1979 from Southern Illinois University School of Law where he received the John S. Rendelman Award as Outstanding Senior Law Student and served as Student Bar Association President. After graduating from law school, he spent 5 years in general private practice with an Alton law firm and with his own practice in Granite City. In 1984, he was recruited by former Illinois Attorney General, Neil F. Hartigan, as Assistant Illinois Attorney General to establish and maintain the attorney General’s Granite City Regional Office, which serviced an eight county area, including Madison County and seven surrounding counties. As Director of this office, Mr. Orsey handled all types of litigation for the State of Illinois, including general law, consumer protection, criminal, revenue collection, environmental, charitable trust, administrative review cases and many other legal matters. From 1990 to 2006, Mr. Orsey served as a member of the adjunct faculty at Southwestern Illinois College as an instructor of Business Law.
After serving eleven years as an attorney representing the people of the State of Illinois, Mr. Orsey returned to private practice in 1995, establishing his own general practice law firm, now located at 3388 Maryville Road, Granite City, Illinois. He served as an Assistant Madison County State’s Attorney from 1996 through 2000. Since 1997, Mr. Orsey has served as Deputy General Counsel for the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association and represents almost 50 police and firefighter Pension Boards. He frequently presents training seminars for police and fire trustees to meet their mandatory training requirements. Mr. Orsey served as President of the Madison County Bar Association (1992-93) and has been a member of the Illinois State Bar Association General Assembly for over 20 years. He served as an elected member of the Illinois State Bar Association, Board of Governors (2003 – 2009) (2015 – present) and served as ISBA Treasurer (2008 – 2009). In June, 2013 Mr. Orsey received the prestigious Board of Governor’s Award from the Illinois State Bar Association. In May, 2017, Mr. Orsey was elected Third Vice-President of the Illinois State Bar Association and will be installed as President of the Illinois State Bar Association in June, 2020.
Mr. Orsey and his wife, Catherine reside in Glen Carbon, Illinois and have a son, Matthew, who is a graduate of the University of Illinois.
