Jeff advises individuals and closely held businesses on a wide range of corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, phantom ownership plans, operating agreements, joint ventures, succession planning, corporate governance, choice of entity considerations, entity formations, customer and supplier agreements, employment agreements and loan documents, while also providing counsel on the day-to-day operating needs of his business clients.
In addition to corporate transactions, Jeff focuses on sales and acquisitions of real estate and leasing, including office, retail and industrial leases.
With respect to estate planning, he regularly counsels clients on wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, powers of attorney and federal estate tax and Illinois inheritance tax reduction.
Before joining the firm, Jeff worked for almost 10 years at a boutique law firm in the Chicago suburbs where his practice focused primarily on general business matters, estate planning and real estate. Prior to that, Jeff began his legal career as a restructuring and insolvency attorney for approximately five years at a multinational law firm.
Some of Jeff’s recent corporate transactional work includes the following matters:
- Represented an auto loan financing and auto loan origination company regarding a private equity company’s investment in such company, in exchange for a minority ownership in the company’s business.
- Advised a client who provides therapeutic services on the creation of a new limited liability company, including the preparation of an operating agreement for such new business enterprise in which a key employee became a co-owner.
- Represented a client in the license plate recognition industry regarding the issuance of phantom equity and profit interests to key employees.
- Represented an endodontist in the sale of his practice and related post-sale employment matters.
- Counseled a client on the negotiation of new office leases in Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota.
Jeff thoroughly enjoys practicing law. He finds that every day provides something new and challenging. It makes him think thoughtfully and creatively to support his clients. He enjoys working with clients to find those innovative solutions that accomplish their goals without breaking the bank with legal fees. When a client is happy with a solution and continues to call him back for additional advice or refers him to other clients, he feels like he has done the right job assisting and representing them.
Jeff takes pride in his ability to take complex legal language and explain it in a clear, concise manner to clients without all the legalese. He devotes much of his time in client conversations, to listening and comprehending the client’s business and problems and a lesser percentage of his time doing the talking with clients. In this way, Jeff gets to know the client and understand the client’s needs, which allows his advice to accomplish the client’s stated desires and goals.
Jeff values client service, which begins with being responsive, being honest, setting realistic and reasonable expectations and building a strong rapport. When setting realistic expectations for matters and meeting those expectations, an inherent level of trust and a solid working relationship can be developed.
Jeff received his B.S. degree in Finance with honors from the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign and his J.D. degree from the University of Illinois College of Law. He also spent his third year of law school as a visiting student at the Northwestern University School of Law. Jeff currently serves on Chuhak & Tecson’s Associate/Law Clerk Oversight Committee.
When not practicing law, Jeff enjoys spending time with his family, attending his kids’ sporting events, trying new restaurants and traveling, where his family always makes sure to take in local sporting events and see a new stadium, no matter the sport. As a family of White Sox fans, they can be seen in the stands at a few games during the year, watching their team play in what they still call “Comiskey Park” or just “Sox Park.”