Our Team.

I believe it is up to the judicial system to utilize the law as a tool to achieve these goals; thus, achieving justice.  I believe in the best interests of children.  I understand this issue through my practice experience, training and everyday life experiences with abuse, addiction, neglect and the vast amount of other issues that society faces today.  I have been appointed in the past as a Guardian Ad Litem in the surrounding counties and was hired as an expert litigation support witness regarding issues of family law for a matter in DuPage County, Illinois. 

My greatest skills are my empathy and compassion towards my clients. They allows me not only to help them legally, but also to help them put their lives back together after any train wreck they may have endured.  Clients wouldn’t be coming to me if they did not have a major problem in their lives.  It is my job to listen to “their story” no matter how long it takes.  This allows me to understand the facts completely so that I am able to create a legal plan of action.  Sometimes those interviews reveal facts that would not have otherwise been discovered, and in some cases have “won the day.”  However, I do not believe my job stops there.  Many times when clients come to me they are emotionally devastated and emotionally tired.  It is my job to carry them through the process when they cannot walk; take every bullet that comes their way due to their weak ability to protect themselves; and to teach them strength  so that at the conclusion of the matter, they are able to not only walk, but to walk in front of me with confidence. 

Some individuals call this approach “hand holding” and won’t take the time to engage in it.  I call it human kindness, and I strive to do it every day. I am a negotiator by nature and am a mediator for the 14th Judicial Circuit.  I also have sat as an arbitration judge.  However, I am a justice seeker and will fight for justice to the end.  In my earlier career, I fought often against the Illinois Department of Children and Family services to ensure that my clients were not denied their rights, and to ensure that this agency and its contractors followed their own regulations and state law. I have also successfully represented fathers in custody battles when the law gave men very few rights.  In that way my practice has helped to change the law as it was.   

I similarly have helped many women and children understand that domestic abuse is not just physical and can have lasting affects.   This has often given these women the courage to escape their abusers and move on to a better life. See the article I wrote for the Illinois Catalyst attached hereto. I represented a client in a case published in the  appellate court, In Re H.T. The court reversed an adoption granted by the trial judge, noting that the law was not adequate and should be changed to require child investigations.