Christopher J. "Chris" Barber

As a seasoned litigator with the added benefit of in-house experience, Maile takes pride in her in-depth understanding of her clients and their businesses so she can anticipate their needs, their pain points, and the internal and external pressures they face. With nearly 30 years of experience litigating and counseling clients in all types of commercial litigation, Maile is meticulous, responsive, tough, and strategic. Since joining Barack Ferrazzano, Maile has represented clients in commerci...

Scott Seaman Scott is a commercial litigator and trial and appellate lawyer with more than 38 years of experience. Scott is widely regarded as one of the leading attorneys in the United States representing insurers and reinsurers in property and casualty matters. He is known for employing his deep knowledge of the law and insurance and financial industries, strategic thinking, and honed trial and appellate advocacy to produce creative solutions and outstanding results for clients on a cost-ef...

You often hear about small-town values from big-city attorneys in commercials, but Jim McPhedran, who grew up on a farm outside Oglesby, took his small-town values to Chicago and brought back his law degree to help the people of the Illinois Valley. He remains as committed to his community today as he was as a new lawyer over three decades ago. "I learned a long time ago that you treat all clients the same," said Jim McPhedran. "Each deserves the same level of respect, consideration, and hard...

Craig Annunziata is the managing partner of the Chicago office and a partner in the Tampa office. He represents management in employment-related disputes. The majority of his practice is before federal and state courts and alternative dispute forums throughout the United States. He also defends management against charges filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and related state agencies. A significant portion of his practice is devoted to counseling management, prio...

Dan Burnham has a comprehensive intellectual property practice that encompasses a diverse range of sophisticated technologies and legal issues. He is a registered patent attorney who represents clients in federal courts and at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. What do you focus on? I utilize my engineering experience to work closely with clients in the product development process, helping to avoid competitive patents and ensure commercial exploitation of new products through effe...

Kristen Laughridge Gale is a partner in the environmental law firm of Nijman•Franzetti LLP, in Chicago. She has broad experience in litigation and enforcement-related issues, including private cost recovery, the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, RCRA, underground storage tanks, CERCLA, and the Illinois Environmental Protection Act. Ms. Gale has successfully represented clients in regulatory disputes and negotiations with both state and federal agencies, including defending enforcement acti...

As a real estate partner, Brett has more than 20 years of diverse experience advising clients with respect to sophisticated real estate transactions, including acquisitions, dispositions, leasing, development, financings, and joint ventures. Brett is a trusted strategic advisor who maintains a deal-oriented approach with a goal of understanding and achieving his client’s goals in an efficient manner. Brett is thoughtful and highly cost-effective as he concentrates on the material issues...

Seth is a partner in the firm’s Corporate & Securities practice group. Seth focuses his practice on representing large and middle market private equity and venture funds and privately and publicly owned companies in a wide variety of domestic and cross-border complex business transactions. These include mergers & acquisitions, divestitures, leveraged buyouts, venture capital investments, carve-out transactions, joint ventures, start-up financing, growth capital investments and c...

Jim Hitzeman focuses his practice on estate and trust litigation, representing a wide range of clients, including corporate fiduciaries and charities. He has handled will and trust contests, construction actions, trust reformations, citations, actions involving contracts to make a will, accounting actions, and charitable cy pres and equitable deviation matters, in addition to a host of cases involving breach of fiduciary duty. Mr. Hitzeman has extensive experience dealing with family settleme...

John O’Neil’s legal knowledge, business savvy, and leadership of complex transactions have earned him a reputation as a global leader in private equity fund matters. John heads the Investment Funds Practice Group, the Firm’s leading-edge global platform that provides innovative and bespoke legal strategies to sponsors and funds of all kinds. John is also a member of the Firm's Executive Committee. John has been recognized by Chamber’s Global, Chambers USA, IFLR 1000, L...