Approach
Local governments face important and complex legal issues as they strive to effectively and fairly serve the needs of their communities. Our firm has significant experience in representing the diverse interests of public sector clients from land use to finance. In addition, we have been retained on many complex projects, including specialized municipal litigation involving employee terminations, disability matters, injunctions, privatization, employee benefits matters, elections, environmental matters, real estate, equal pay and comparable worth.
Attorneys
Our attorneys bring many years of experience in municipal law to our work with local government clients. Firm members also volunteer on civic boards, commissions, task forces, and as elected local government officials.
Clients
Your Firm prides itself on the variety and quality of local entities with which it works, from municipal and county governments throughout Illinois to local agencies, boards and associations. We also represent non-government clients' interests appearing before a wide variety of municipal entities and committees.
Practice
The scope of our practice is varied and includes labor relations, public finance, employee benefits, litigation, administrative law, governmental relations, immigration, real estate and tax law.
We have represented numerous municipal entities in labor negotiations as well as interest arbitration proceedings and grievance arbitration before the Employment Relations Commission and the Illinois Labor Relations Board. We have been involved in precedent-setting cases in the Supreme Court and the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Our size, depth and experience have allowed us to tackle critical issues such as public sector health insurance cost containment; effective management of retiree insurance costs including GASB post retirement costs; Workforce 2000 issues; privatization and subcontracting of public services; coordination of Americans With Disabilities Act, Family and Medical Leave Act and worker's compensation issues; cooperative labor-management efforts; and workforce diversity efforts and issues. Our privatization experience includes hospitals, wastewater services, nursing homes, museums, convention centers and libraries.
Your Firm has been a major player in Illinois and Midwestern municipal finance for many years. We have issued the approving bond opinion for issues ranging from hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of the State of Illinois, Illinois Housing and Economic Development Authority and Chicago Metropolitan Sewerage District, to smaller issues on behalf of municipalities, school districts and sanitary districts. Most of our bond opinions are rendered on behalf of Illinois and Midwestern issuers, and are readily accepted in the national markets. We have also represented private citizens/entities in zoning, developments, litigation, revenue bond and tax incremental financing, assessments and condemnation proceedings. We are working on municipal finance issues on behalf of the City of Plano, Illinois as well as financing issues for the creation of a new airport in Peotone, Illinois. We have worked on specialized bonds involving special service areas and tax increment financing. From school districts to sanitary districts to park districts, we have successfully handled large and small issues on behalf of a variety of Illinois municipalities.
We also handle ethics opinions and a wide variety of public law questions, including open meeting, public records, parliamentary procedure and municipal development issues.
Value Added Services to Municipalities
We continually seek to be more proactive in anticipating the needs of local governments. For example, each year, Your Firm offers seminars on timely topics of interest to our municipal clients and others in various locations.
In addition, members of our firm authored "Municipal Employees," a chapter of the Handbook for Municipal Officials, published by the League of Illinois Municipalities. This chapter summarizes many key laws regulating government employment. Several members of our firm also contributed to Municipal Labor Relations in Illinois, published by State Bar of Illinois. A member of our firm also serves as general editor for an IICLE book on Illinois land use, has written the Zoning Handbook for Municipal Officials, and written extensively on ethics legislation, Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act.