John E. Freechack

John has more than 40 years of experience advising hundreds of financial institutions and their boards on mergers and acquisitions, bank regulatory issues, corporate governance, and securities law matters. John is straight-forward, a good sounding board and strategic thinker, meticulous, and personable.

John is the founder and co-chair of BFKN’s Financial Institutions Group and has advised hundreds of financial institutions on strategic, corporate governance and other matters. His extensive experience includes the representation of numerous public companies, as well as regional and community banks. John spends considerable time counseling institutions and their boards with respect to mergers and acquisitions, bank regulatory issues, corporate governance and securities law matters.

John is frequently recognized as one of financial institution law's top-ranked practitioners by Chambers USA, Best Lawyers, and other publications. He is also one of only three recipients to be awarded the Illinois Bankers Association’s Distinguished Bank Counsel Award.

John is active in the banking community. He is a well-known speaker at national conferences involving the financial institutions area, addressing bank trade associations, regulators, and industry groups across the country. John is also the Founder and past Chairman of the Community Bank Subcommittee of the American Bar Association Business Law Section’s Banking Law Committee.

John has served as an Adjunct Professor of banking law at a number of law schools for the past 25 years, including at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law since 2001.