Questions we are asked before anyone signs anything.

Conflicts are cleared within one business day. For an active investigation or a signed letter of intent we will put a partner on a call the same day you contact us, before any engagement letter is signed.

The partner you speak with runs the matter. We name the partner and the senior associate in the engagement letter, and we do not substitute them without telling you first. The firm has 40 partners and 118 lawyers, and matters are staffed leanly by design.

Yes. Roughly half of our transactional work involves parties outside Illinois, and our litigators are admitted in federal courts across the Midwest and in New York and the District of Columbia. We appear pro hac vice elsewhere and work with local counsel where that serves the matter.

Hourly, fixed fee or capped fee, chosen by you at the outset. Diligence, disclosure schedules and defined transaction phases are frequently priced as fixed fees. Litigation is usually hourly with a budget agreed by phase and revised in writing when the case changes shape.

No. Every matter carries a budget by phase. If the work is going to exceed that budget we tell you before it happens, not on the invoice. Bills are itemised by task and issued monthly.

No. The initial call, including a preliminary view of the matter and a staffing and fee proposal, is not billed.

Before the letter of intent, not after. The LOI sets exclusivity, the deal structure and often the indemnity architecture. By the time it is signed most of your leverage is already allocated, and pre-transaction estate planning has become materially more expensive.

From engagement to closing, typically four to seven months. Diligence runs five weeks, negotiation five to six, and regulatory clearance adds anywhere from thirty days to several months depending on whether a second request is issued.

Preserve. Issue a litigation hold immediately and suspend any automatic deletion. Do not begin interviewing employees before counsel is engaged, because those conversations may not be privileged in the way you expect. Call us before the return date, not near it.

Usually not, and we will say so early. Where interests may diverge we represent the company and help arrange separate counsel for individuals. Pretending a conflict does not exist costs far more later than acknowledging it on day one.