Winfield Lawyers

Kathleen C. Chavez, founding partner of Foote, Mielke, Chavez & O’Neil, LLC, earned her Juris Doctor degree in 1998 from Northwestern University School of Law. Chavez is a nationally recognized civil litigator with a reputation for obtaining exceptional results in challenging cases. She is a results-driven, highly focused “problem-solver” with an unmatched ability to strategically frame critical issues, develop innovative solutions and negotiate outstanding results for her clients. She is admitted to practice law in California, Illinois and Washington D.C., as well as various federal courts, the Federal Trial Bar and the United States Federal Court of Claims.

Ms. Pirtle uses her extensive knowledge in helping each and every client find a solution that is tailored to his or her circumstances while also exhibiting strong advocacy in the courtroom. She understands that not every case is a trial case nor can every case be kept out of the courtroom. Whether your needs are getting through a tough situation now or planning to avoid tough situations in the future, Ms. Pirtle can help you achieve your goals. Practice Areas • Divorce • High Asset Divorce • Maintenance & Alimony • Child Custody & Child Support • Prenuptial Agreements • Family Law • Residential Real Estate Bar Admissions Education...

Richard Doerr is married and has two children and three teenage grandchildren. In his 40+ years' experience, Mr. Doerr has tried cases on matters ranging from speeding to murder. In 1972, he was selected out of 200 applicants as one of ten participants in the St. Louis County Prosecutor's intern program. During his 31 years in bankruptcy practice, he has seen two major revisions in bankruptcy laws, the first in 1978 and the second in 2005. Mr. Doerr's leisure activities include cross-country skiing, car shows, and driving his classic 1973 Corvette convertible.

Chris graduated from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville, in 2012 with a Bachelors of Science in Education degree in Sports Management and minors in Business and Political Science.
Chris graduated from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law in May of 2016 and sat for the Bar Examination in July of 2016. Chris was admitted to the Illinois Bar in November of 2016. During law school, Chris held several internships: one with a Civil Litigation firm in Glenview; another with the City of Naperville, where he had his 7-11 License and assisted the City Prosecutor in Traffic Court and DUI Court; and...

Lisa Knauf is an attorney that combines her legal expertise with real world experience. She had a successful sales career before going back to school to attend Northern Illinois Univ. College of Law for her law degree, She is licensed to practice law in Illinois and is the owner of Knauf Law Office PC in Addison Illinois, which merged with Pankau Law in January 2020. The Knauf Law practice concentrates in the areas of estate planning, including wills, living trusts, and powers of attorney, probate administration, real estate and elder law. Lisa is an active member of her community, having served...

Douglas Boodt Attorney General practice attorney with over 25 years experience. Concentrating in Wills, Trusts, Powers of Attorney, Real Estate Law and Business Law. Office hours are by appointment only. I can be reached at douglas@boodtlaw.com or 269.929.7206. Let me put my decades of experience to work for you. LICENSED IN ILLINOIS & MICHIGAN

Working to help clients protect their property and deal with difficult financial situations

Chicago attorney focusing on helping people who have suffered injuries in truck or motor vehicle crashes. I also represents individuals involved in workers compensation claims, people who have not been treated fairly by their own insurance company, and people who have been wrongfully or unlawfully fired by their employers.

Mr. Petti is a resident of Elburn, IL. He was born in Philadelphia, PA, and grew up in Pittsburgh PA and Evanston IL. He has acted as legal counsel for both small and large businesses. He has been associated with private law practice firms in Chicago and the Chicago Suburban area. For the past twenty two years, he has maintained his principal law office in Kane County, Illinois. Mr. Petti's corporate law work includes serving as staff counsel for Motorola and General Counsel of Andrew Corporation, two international electronic businesses. His trial work has taken him from Connecticut to...

Do you want a patent that just hangs on the wall or stands up in court ? We are trial attorneys that write patents to stand up in court.

Back in 2013, I started working in Real Estate litigation helping people in bad home loans control their investment in Cook, Kane, and DuPage Counties. Then, we helped hundreds, if not a thousand people control their finances on their own terms and helped them secure and protect their family’s real estate in Chicago.

After 4 years of doing only foreclosures, we expanded, mostly through luck, into Real Estate Law as a whole. We found we could deliver better results to our clients by having all the real estate sales, law, and title service under one roof. At this point,...

I am a licensed attorney with 25 years experience as a civil defense litigator and trial lawyer. For most of my practice I specialized in Personal Injury Defense with a sub-specialty in Medical Malpractice, Premises Liability and Intentional Torts. I also represented a Medical Captive Insurance Company as lead attorney, advising the Board on Risk Management issues and representing the insured doctors in litigation. I have tried cases to verdict in many counties in Illinois. I was chosen by Nautilus Insurance company to represent its insured in lawsuits in Cook County, including Multi-Million dollar Construction injury...

Dan DeBias started with Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates in 2007. He finished his Juris Doctor degree at The John Marshall Law School, and received his undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dan was published in the John Marshall Law Review in 2017 for a Comment he authored about protecting injured workers in Illinois. He also was an editor for The John Marshall Law Review. Dan now devotes 100% of his legal practice to assisting injured workers.

Thomas A. Kelliher is an expert litigator who has first-chaired 30 trials during the course of his profession. When involved in defense work for the city of Chicago, Tom won 90 percent of the 29 cases he tried to jury verdict. And since Tom started representing injured plaintiffs, he has won many jury verdicts in excess of $1 million for his clients. Born in Santa Monica, Calif., Tom graduated from high school in Arlington, Va., before going to the University of Virginia and The John Marshall Law School. He now resides in Westchester and enjoys golf, barbecuing and spending time with...

Van A. Larson is the President of and principal/sole attorney at the Law Office of Van A. Larson, P.C. in downtown Batavia, Illinois. Van received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and later received his Juris Doctorate from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois. Van A. Larson was admitted to the Illinois Bar and the U.S. District Court of Northern Illinois in 1978. Since then, he has gained more than 35 years of litigation experience in nearly all courts throughout Kane, Kendall, DuPage and DeKalb counties. Van’s career began...

Kane County lawyer, Susan D. Shivers, has been practicing law for over 27 years. Susan received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Miami University (with a double major in Psychology and English) and her Law degree, with Honors, from The John Marshall Law School. Susan is licensed to practice law in the State of Illinois and before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

I received my law degree from the Emory University School of Law, with honors. Before attending law school, I worked in the accounting field, having received my finance degree from Arizona State University.

I began my legal career working for a midsize firm located in Atlanta, Georgia, before returning to the Chicagoland area. Over the course of my career, I have represented both debtors and creditors in a wide range of bankruptcy and insolvency related matters. Having sat on both sides of the table, I bring a unique perspective to both my bankruptcy and litigation clients.

I have filed personal and business...

Laura Childs has practiced law for over 24 years. She is the principal and founder of Law Office of Laura Childs and focuses her practice on Workers' Compensation claims and appeals as well as plaintiffs' Personal Injury cases.

Ms. Childs aggressively negotiates with insurance companies and litigates Workers' Compensation and Personal Injury claims to help clients recover financial compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering resulting from accidents. A signification portion of her practice is devoted to helping clients with work-related injuries when benefits are denied or disputes arise about the nature and extent of injuries.

David is also well-respected in the legal community. For example, he was named an Illinois “Rising Star” attorney by Law and Politics Magazine during 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. He also received a 5.0 out of 5.0 “preeminent” ranking from Martindale Hubbell. David has, on several occasions, lectured at educational seminars for lawyers and other professionals. He has moderated a continuing legal education panel of federal magistrates and judges on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, he has presented before the Illinois State Bar Association on electronic discovery rules, and he testified before the United States Judicial Conference...

Craig S. Mielke is a founding partner at Foote, Mielke, Chavez and O'Neil, LLC and limits his practice to workers' compensation, personal injury, eminent domain, law enforcement, and complex litigation.

I received by Undergraduate Degree from the University of Michigan in 1989, and my Law Degree from DePaul University College of Law in 1993. I have practiced law in Illinois since 1993. I opened my own practice in 2012, with a focus on family law/divorce, personal bankruptcy, and foreclosure defense. I have a common sense and non-adversarial approach to my cases. I attempt to resolve cases quickly and efficiently, keeping the cost as low as possible, while still working to ensure that my client’s rights are fully protected. I also believe in being honest with each client...

A creative and dynamic attorney, Jordan has recently returned to Illinois to join the litigation practice of Higgins & Burke after several years of practicing in Colorado. We are happy to have him aboard and pleased to announce this new addition to our practice. Prior to joining Higgins & Burke, P.C., Jordan was the lead associate attorney with the litigation practice of Goulart & Associates, P.C. in Boulder, Colorado. During that time, Jordan secured multiple favorable judgments and settlements for his clients in a wide array of legal matters including construction defect, real estate, life/viatical settlements, securities and commercial litigation. Leading up...

Tyler's practice emphasizes business organization and planning (including business formation and corporate maintenance); municipal law; creditors' rights (including foreclosures and collections); commercial law; real estate (including land use and zoning law); and estate planning.

Ethan G. Zelizer is a nationally respected employment and labor law attorney, senior certified human resources professional and a certified labor relations professional, based in Chicago, Illinois. Ethan has extensive experience working with both management and employees. He has extensive experience representing and advising employers in various industries including financial services, aerospace, manufacturing, and food distribution, in all aspects of labor and employment law. He regularly appears before federal and state courts, federal arbitration panels, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and the Illinois Department of Human Rights, and the Human Rights Commission. Ethan...

Occurrences with family and friends have cultivated Gabe’s deep-seated devotion to helping the injured. The son of a doctor and occupational therapist, Gabe received his parents’ work ethic, moral compass, and sense of duty towards the sick and injured. He began putting those traits to good use at UW-Madison. After graduating from college in 2014, Gabe landed a job as the Director of Business Development at Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates. He didn’t yet realize his capacity for law, but during this role Gabe witnessed the vast effect that a personal injury attorney can have on injured clients. Gabe continued to work full...

Ms. Chavez counsels and represents employees in a variety of employment litigation matters including discrimination (based on age, disability, gender, national origin, race, religion and sexual orientation), sexual harassment, Family Medical Leave Act and retaliation claims. Ms. Chavez has experience representing employees in front of administrative agencies (the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Illinois Department of Human Rights and the Illinois Department of Labor) and state and federal courts. The services offered by Ms. Chavez range from the review of a severance package, to representation at the administrative level--Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, to legal representation in state and federal court.

Attorney Jae Francis Lee is a principal attorney at Francis Law Center with four immigration law offices in Naperville, Chicago, Schaumburg, and Madison. He taught U.S. History for 22 years at the University of Wisconsin since he completed his Ph.D. in History from New York University in 2000. He has written several textbook and journal articles and lectured on legal topics relating to U.S. Immigration History. He also created IT, real estate, and catering companies and successfully managed them. His experience and background as a researcher, business owner, and professor have well prepared him to help professors, researchers, business owners,...

David graduated from Kansas State University where he was not only a member of the school’s first national-qualifying Trial Team but also the head of the university’s judicial system. As the head of the judicial system, David represented victims of sexual harassment, theft, and property damage and advocated for their rights before student and faculty judicial review boards. After college, David moved to Chicago, where he went to the Chicago-Kent College of Law and earned his Juris Doctor, cum laude. While at Chicago-Kent, David competed nationally on the school’s Moot Court team. A finalist or semi-finalist in all of his prior...