Illinois on the Committee on Character and Fitness for the First Appellate District of the State of Illinois. In 1961 he served as Chairman of the Committee. As a Commissioner he sat by authority of the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois to hear and pass upon character qualifications of applicants to the Illinois Bar. As a member of the Board of Managers of the Chicago Bar Association, Leighton served as a Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Illinois and a member of the Chicago Bar Association Grievance Committee on which Committee he sat by the authority of the Supreme Court of Illinois hearing cases involving complaints against members of the Bar.
Between 1958 and 1963, Leighton was one of 50 lawyers and judges of the Joint Illinois and Chicago Bar Association Committee for adoption of the Amended Judicial Article. During that same period he was a member of the Joint Chicago Bar and Illinois State Bar Association Committee to revise the Criminal Code. He was member of the Drafting Sub-Committee that prepared the Substantive provisions of the 1961 Criminal Code. He also was a member of the Drafting Subcommittee that prepared the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963, being responsible for the appellate sections of the Code which is now the law of Illinois.
Judge Leighton is presently a member of the Legal Education Committee of the Chicago Bar Association; and for several years, he was a member of its important Judicial Candidates Committee.
From August 1970 to August 1978, he served in the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar of the American Bar Association. He was member of the Council, Member of its Accreditation Committee, Vice Chairman, Chairman-Elect, Chairman and Immediate Past Chairman. The Council is the accreditation arm of the American Bar Association for all accredited law schools in this country.
In addition to his activities in the respective bar associations of which Leighton has been a member, he has written and had published articles on legal subjects:
"In Rem Powers of Courts of Equity," 5 National Bar Jour. 1 (March, 1947); "Post-Trial Procedures in an Illinois Criminal Case." 47 111. Bar Jour. 253 (1958); "Post-Conviction Remedies in Illinois Criminal Law," Illinois Law Forum (1967); "Federal Supremacy and Federal Habeas Corpus," St. Louis Univ. Law Journal (May, 1967); "Pragmatics of Procedure in Illinois Criminal Appeals," 1 John Marshall J. of P. and P. 167 (1968); "Elements of Equitable Relief." 2 John Marshall J. of P. and P. 230 (1969).

George N. Leighton has always been a Democrat.
From 1947 to 1952, he served under the late Christopher C. Wimbish as President of the 3rd Ward Regular Democratic Organization. As President of the 3rd Ward, Leighton was active in one of the most influential and powerful ward organizations of the Democratic Party.
From 1947 to 1964, Leighton served on citizens committees for the election of Mayor Richard J. Daley and for the election of every important Democratic candidate in Cook County and the State of Illinois. Leighton was active in the campaign to elect John F. Kennedy as President of the United States.
In 1957, Leighton moved to 8400 South Prairie Avenue. It was then part of the 19th Ward under Ward Committeeman John Duffy. He became active in the 19th Ward Regular Democratic Organization; and when the present 21st Ward was created by re-districting, took an active part in the organization of the Democratic Party in the 21st Ward. Leighton was campaign manager for Melvin McNairy, candidate for Alderman for the 21st Ward in the 1963 campaign. He was active in the present organization of the 21st Ward under the leadership of Ward Committeeman Joseph J. Robichaux as Vice-President of the 21st Ward Regular Democratic Organization. Because of his position as a member of the Illinois Judiciary, Judge Leighton has withdrawn from active membership in political organizations.

George N. Leighton served as an Assistant Attorney General of the State of Illinois, 1949-1951. From 1960 to 1964, he was a Master in Chancery of the Circuit Court of Cook County. He has been, by appointment, a member of the Public Review Board, UAW, AFL-CIO on which he sat with six other members as final Arbitrators of internal controversies in one of the largest unions in the world. In November 1964, Leighton was elected to a six-year term as Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County. In July, 1969 the Supreme Court of Illinois assigned Judge Leighton to sit as an Appellate Court Judge of the Appellate Court of Illinois, First District.
On February 12, 1965, Judge Leighton was appointed an Instructor in Criminal Law and Procedure at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois. Since then, Judge Leighton has played a part in the preparation of more than 800 students for the practice of law. In 1966, he originated a seminar in criminal appeals in which he taught third-year students the techniques in the handling of criminal cases on review.
In February 1969, Judge Leighton was elected to a four-year term as a member of the Council of the National Harvard Law School Associations.
At its 1970 meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar of the American Bar Association elected Judge Leighton to a four-year term as a member of the Council of the Section. This is the official accrediting agency for law schools in the United States. The task of this Council is to inspect