James B. Sowka

Ross Emmerman is a broad-based transactional lawyer focusing on domestic and cross-border middle- market mergers and acquisitions, venture capital, and other financings and joint venture arrangements. He counsels public and private companies, family offices, and other buyers and sellers of businesses on structuring and negotiating complex business transactions, including purchases and sales of distressed businesses, executive compensation and general corporate matters. Ross also regularly rep...

As employers increasingly seek to hire and retain talented foreign national employees to maximize competitiveness, Tejas is empathetic to their needs and offers practical immigration law advice. He is committed to guiding employers of all sizes – across a diverse cross-section of industries, including finance, banking, education, transportation, and healthcare – in efficiently and economically sponsoring workers for permanent residency in the United States through Program Electron...

Brian Richards is Chair of the Firm’s Global Private Equity Practice and is a partner in the Private Equity and M&A practices at Paul Hastings. Brian has 30 years of experience leading complex domestic and international transactions, including leveraged buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, and growth equity investments in a wide variety of industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, technology, distribution, and services. The volume and breadth of Brian’s experience is rela...

Andy Gelman is an attorney in Holland & Knight's Chicago office. He concentrates his practice in estate planning and estate and trust administration and controversies and is the immediate past chair of the firm's Illinois Private Wealth Services Practice Group. He counsels individuals, executives and business owners on the use of wills and insurance and inter vivos or living trusts and powers of attorney for property and health care in their estate planning. Often his advice is in the are...

Michelle M. Kohut is a Chicago personal injury trial lawyer and was named Partner at Corboy & Demetrio in 2019. She practices in all areas of personal injury law, including cases arising from automobile collisions, medical malpractice, construction negligence, premises liability, product liability and railroad negligence, as well as in the area of workers' compensation. Michelle has tried many personal injury cases to verdict and has obtained numerous multi-million dollar settlements on b...

Veteran attorney Michael Elam brings more than three decades of experience in environmental, energy, infrastructure and natural resource law in both the private and public sectors. He structures creative agreements and helps secure approvals and financing for complex national and international agreements involving the development, remediation and financing of environmentally challenged or controversial projects surrounding energy and sensitive water bodies or sources. Michael represents busin...

Nicole K. Mann focuses her practice on all aspects of tax and estate planning, estate and trust administration and family business planning. She also has considerable experience in estate, trust and tax litigation involving disputes between and among family members, fiduciaries and beneficiaries. Nicole is a co-chair of the Firm’s Trust & Estate Controversy group. Read full biography: https://www.mwe.com/people/mann-nicole-k/

Ziemowit T. Smulkowski is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Tax Law. Ziemowit T., who practices law in Chicago, Illinois, has been recognized since 2026. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Ziemowit T. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.

Troy A. Groetken, Shareholder Email: tgroetken@taftlaw.com Tel. (312) 775-8259 Practice Areas: Global Intellectual Property Portfolio Analysis, Counseling & Management; Complex Chemical, Small-molecule Pharmaceutical, and Biotechnological Patent Prosecution; Intellectual Property Acquisition, Divestiture, and Licensing; Clearance, Freedom to Operate & Invalidity Opinions; Trademark Prosecution; Antitrust; Intellectual Property Landscaping Education: Drake University, College of Pharma...

As a sought-after transactional and regulatory advisor, Patrick J. Martinez has built his practice on executing complex healthcare acquisitions and joint ventures. He represents private equity firms and their platform companies in the acquisition and divestiture of for-profit healthcare companies, as well as provider-to-provider deals. Read full biography: https://www.mwe.com/people/patrick-j-martinez/