She worked at a Chicago-based law firm, became involved in politics, and president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association.

[1] Her mother later became a politician and her father was a marine pilot who died in a crash while in route to Naval Air Station Glenview when she was eighteen months old.

[1] Byrne was an editor of her high school newspaper and initially wanted to be a political journalist.

[1] Byrne joined Cooney & Conway as a law clerk on the day she passed the Illinois Bar Examination in 1988.

[1][6] Byrne died of lung cancer at the Rush University Medical Center, on August 8, 2024, at the age of 66.