Category: 1990s

Robert Brunner has joined the Chicago office of Kilpatrick as Litigation of Counsel, joining its Complex Commercial Litigation Team. Brunner previously was a part of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP. A seasoned litigator with extensive expertise in state and federal courts across the country, his nationwide practice includes counseling clients on a wide variety of commercial and insurance coverage disputes as well as financial services litigation.

Chambers USA recognized Adam H. Fleischer ’94 as among the top 18 insurance coverage attorneys in the United States and named him to the highest ranking for Insurance: Dispute Resolution in the state of Illinois for its 2025 report. Adam is also a fellow of the American College of Coverage Counsel and has been previously honored as a top insurance coverage attorney by Best Lawyers of America, Leading Lawyers, Crain’s Chicago Business, Who’s Who Legal and Illinois Super Lawyers.

Adam’s team at BatesCarey is ranked by Chambers USA in the top band of insurance coverage firms in Illinois, powered by University of Illinois College of Law alumni Samuel J. Head ‘22 and Justin K. Seigler ‘12, recently named to Illinois Super Lawyers Rising Stars, Gustavo A. Otalvora ‘09 and R. Patrick Bedell ‘04, a former recipient of Chicago Lawyer 40 Under Forty and Illinois Super Lawyers Rising Star, as well as this summer’s clerks Parker C. Mee (J.D. 2026) and Rebekah L. Follis (J.D. 2026).

Michelle Preiksaitis, JD, PhD (Dr. P), has launched Coastal Organizational Research and Learning Strategies, LLC (CORALS LLC) and its peer-reviewed scholarly journal, C’JAR (CORALS’ Journal of Applied Research). CORALS LLC provides research and strategy services to small business owners seeking to leverage data-driven models for growth through publication and national conference engagement. C’JAR welcomes submissions from legal, business, and healthcare professionals focused on applied, practice-oriented research. In April 2025, Dr. Preiksaitis presented a case study on a foundation subsidence remediation project, along with her small business concrete engineering client, at the AEI Conference 2025 in Kansas City, MO. Her part focused on “Fight or Flight Responses in Construction Litigation.” The presentation was supported, in part, by an immersion grant from the University of the Cumberlands, where she is an Associate Professor of Strategy in the doctoral business program.

Brendan Squire has joined AEON Law, a nationally recognized intellectual property boutique, as a patent attorney.

Elected in 2022, Michael Chmiel’s term as Chief Judge of the 22nd Judicial Circuit of the State of Illinois runs through the end of November of 2024. He was previously appointed and then elected as a Circuit Judge in 2005 and 2006, respectively.

Lake County Circuit Judge Christen L. Bishop was honored as the 2024 Justinian of the Year by the Coalition to Reduce Recidivism for her work as the presiding judge of the Restorative Justice Division.

Sang-yul Lee, a partner at the firm of K&L Gates, started his term this fall as President of the Chicago Bar Foundation (CBF). Sang-yul served as first vice president and second vice president during the previous two years. He has been a leader within the bar and foundation communities, including past service as the president of the NAPABA Law Foundation.

This past October, Richard Starnes retired from the State of Missouri after serving as an Assistant Attorney General for 23 years. A member of the Attorney General’s Office’s Criminal Appeals Unit, Richard represented the state in hundreds of cases before the Missouri Court of Appeals, Missouri Supreme Court, and U.S. Supreme Court. Richard now serves as Legal Counsel for the Cole County Juvenile Officer in Jefferson City, Missouri, and pastors a small church at the Lake of the Ozarks.