Veteran Senate Staffer to replace outgoing Eric Madiar

SPRINGFIELD - Senate President John J. Cullerton today announced that Giovanni Randazzo will serve as Parliamentarian and Chief Legal Counsel to the Illinois Senate beginning in December 2014.

“Giovanni’s sound legal advice and counsel has guided our members and staff through some of our most complex legal and policy accomplishments in recent years. We are fortunate that he will continue to be a pillar of the institution in this new leadership role,” said Senate President Cullerton.

Randazzo has served as Deputy Legal Counsel to the Senate President under the leadership of current Senate Parliamentarian and Chief Legal Counsel Eric Madiar since 2009. Madiar is leaving the Senate President’s Office to enter the private sector.

"Giovanni is the right choice for the job. He has the unique skill set and experience needed to continue and build upon the Senate Legal Review staff's unrivaled success since 2009," said Madiar.
 
Prior to his work as Deputy Legal Counsel, Randazzo gained broad experience in a number of legal and policy areas. Over the course of his 10-year tenure in the Senate, Randazzo has provided counsel to the Illinois Senate’s Executive Appointments, Executive, Judiciary, Procurement, Redistricting, Assignments, Elections, Special Committee on Impeachment Trial Procedures, Financial Institutions, Commerce and Economic Development, and Revenue committees. Randazzo’s signature accomplishments include leading negotiations on the state’s pay-to-play ban, laws to increase voter access and establish the Illinois DREAM Act.
 
Randazzo’s law career began in state government when he assumed the role of law clerk first to Illinois Comptroller’s General Counsel and later in the Illinois Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Bureau.

Randazzo is an alumnus of Southern Illinois University School of Law where he received his Juris Doctorate and University of Illinois where he received his Bachelor of Arts. He resides in Springfield with his wife Sara and his two sons Joseph (five) and Michael (three).