Anthony Ficarelli is a skilled attorney whose wide-ranging practice reflects the diversity of his public sector legal experience. The two primary areas of his practice are:

School Law. For nearly 19 years Mr. Ficarelli has advised and represented school districts throughout Illinois as general counsel and as special counsel in a variety of issues, including employment matters, discipline and dismissal of employees, and complex student issues including discipline, residency and special education. He also focuses on representing boards of education in hundreds of collective bargaining agreements with teachers’ unions and various other educational employee support bargaining units.

Mr. Ficarelli often advises school districts on business and financial affairs. His advice includes negotiating financial plans with the State Board of Education and bond underwriters, when necessary. He has worked closely with administrators and boards of education to develop and create effective solutions to budgetary concerns.

In recognition of his experience in the school law area, Mr. Ficarelli was named by his peers in The Leading Lawyers Network as a leading school law lawyer in Illinois. The January/February 2004 and 2011 issues of West Suburban Living magazine listed him as one of two top school law lawyers in the western suburbs of Chicago.

Local Governments and Not-for-Profit Organizations. Mr. Ficarelli also serves as general counsel to other units of local government, including park districts and not-for-profit organizations. Mr. Ficarelli is also involved with counseling on labor issues and personnel issues, including governance issues with not-for-profit boards. Mr. Ficarelli practiced for nine years with a major school law firm immediately before joining Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in January 1999.

From 1985 to 1990, he was a member of the DuPage County State Attorney’s Office, where he rose to the position of Deputy Chief, Civil Division. During this period he represented the County on major project and transactional issues, and was named Outstanding Civil Division Attorney in 1986.

Mr. Ficarelli served for two years with the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, focusing on securities and revenue enforcement. He also spent two years with Hyatt Corporation’s Legal Department focusing on general corporate matters, and worked with private law firms in the areas of commercial finance and banking.

Mr. Ficarelli is a member of the DuPage County and Illinois State Bar Associations, the Illinois Association of School Attorneys, the National Association of School Attorneys and the Illinois Association of School Business Officials.

In 2005 and again in 2007, Mr. Ficarelli was named to the Super Lawyers list in the area of Schools & Education, by Illinois Super Lawyers magazine. Mr. Ficarelli has written several articles for the DuPage County Bar Journal.

He is a frequent lecturer and speaker on educational and employment law issues for a number of organizations, including the Illinois Association of School Boards, Illinois Association of School Business Officials, Illinois Association of School Administrators and other professional education organizations. His presentations include:

• “Building a More Civil Society: DuPage County Anti-Bullying Initiative,” IASB/IASA/IASBO 79th Joint Conference, Chicago, Illinois, November 2011.
• “Negotiation Issues for Superintendents,” Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education Administrative Academy, Alsip, Illinois, February 2010.
• “Schools and Social Media: First Amendment Issues Arising from Student Use of the Internet,” DuPage County Regional Office of Education, Wheaton, Illinois, May 2009.
• “Current Issues for Collective Bargaining,” Third Annual Illinois Association of School Personnel Administrators Conference, Lisle, Illinois, January 2009.
• “Legal and Practical Steps for School Property Management,” Illinois Association of School Boards 2007 Conference, Chicago, Illinois, November 2006.
• “Laws on Worker’s Background Checks and Drug Testing,” DuPage County Bar Association Mega Meeting, Lisle, Illinois, January 2005.

Mr. Ficarelli served as an Associate Professor in the Ph.D. Education Department at Lewis University. He was also an Adjunct Professor in the Business Finance Science Department at the College of DuPage.

Mr. Ficarelli leads Hinshaw's School Law group in an educational partnership program with Naperville School District Number 203.