Litigation and Administrative Lawyers
Elrod Friedman is composed of outstanding land use and government law litigators. We have handled cases in all state and federal Illinois courts, including the Illinois Supreme Court. We have served as special outside litigation counsel to numerous public sector clients, and have been appointed Special Assistant Attorneys General and Special Assistant State’s Attorney on many cases.
Our firm is recognized for its constitutional, annexation, zoning, environmental, and land use litigation. We have successfully defended our government clients in cases, big and small, seeking damages under the First, Second, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United State Constitution, civil rights statutes, and numerous other laws.
We are also involved frequently in statutory and common law administrative review actions, as well as various types of “business” litigation that so often frustrate local governments, such as bidding, contract, and construction litigation. We regularly work on employment and related human rights litigation cases before both courts and administrative agencies. We also have extensive litigation and appellate court experience in public safety litigation involving pension and benefit issues, such as claims under the Illinois PEDA and PSEBA statutes.
Our litigation work is not limited to defense of claims; we have prosecuted the full range of cases regularly encountered by local governments, including against contractors and others who have damaged our clients. We have also prepared and litigated eminent domain actions and other lawsuits filed to further the interests of our clients and their constituencies. We also have broad experience in both federal and state courts defending municipalities, police officers, and elected and appointed employees and officials against charges of civil rights violations.
Our Experience
Our experience gives confidence to our clients that we can handle any litigation in which they may become involved, but it also emphasizes a unique and telling aspect of the history of our local government representations.
We have almost always significantly reduced litigation costs for our clients because we have been able to significantly reduce the litigation they have been forced to undertake or defend. We strongly believe that good general counsel work is the best way to avoid and, if necessary, win in litigation. Developers, contractors, former employees, and others have learned that a well-represented municipality is to be negotiated with, not litigated against. We firmly believe that it is a bigger win for a local government if a lawsuit is never filed against it in the first place.