Geri Lynn Arrindell focuses her practice in commercial litigation matters, including employment law, governmental affairs and regulation. She is engaged in all phases of litigation, including taking depositions and conducting discovery in pretrial litigation.

Ms. Arrindell is a former Assistant Attorney General in the General Law Bureau of the Illinois Attorney General’s office. As such, she has diverse and considerable litigation experience representing state agencies and governmental employees. She has handled employment law, personal injury and civil rights cases before state boards, commissions and in federal court.

Ms. Arrindell’s representative cases include having represented a large nonprofit employer in a two-part arbitration against a national union. The first grievance challenged whether the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) permitted suspensions without pay pending the outcome of an investigation. In the second grievance, it was alleged that the employer lacked just cause to discharge the employee being investigated. The arbitrator denied both grievances, finding that the employer had not violated the CBA by suspending the employee, and that it had had just cause to terminate the employee. Ms. Arrindell joined Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in September 2009. She previously served as an Assistant Attorney General and law clerk at the Office of the Illinois Attorney General after graduating from law school.

During law school, Ms. Arrindell served as a judicial extern in 2004 to the Honorable Sue E. Myerscough, Justice, Fourth District Appellate Court of Illinois. In 2005, she was also a senior law student in her law school’s Employee Justice Clinic where she provided legal assistance to clients regarding worker rights, employment benefits, and petitions for marital dissolution.

Ms. Arrindell is also licensed by the state of Illinois as a Clinical Social Worker. Prior to her legal career, she was Director of Program Services for the Community-Based Division at The Hope Institute for Children and Families in Springfield from 1998 to 2003. She developed the agency’s community-based group homes for children with disabilities, and oversaw the division’s daily operations, annual budget, drafted policies for client care and risk management, and was a member of management’s labor negotiation team. She began her tenure there in 1996 as an intake and training coordinator, before managing the community-based division.

Ms. Arrindell’s professional memberships reflect her legal practice, professional interest and involvement in community service. She is a member of the Central Illinois Women’s Bar Association and the Lincoln-Douglas Inn of Court. She is also a member of the Sangamon County Bar Association and served as Treasurer of its Young Lawyers section. In December 2009 Ms. Arrindell was appointed to the Illinois State Bar Association Judicial Evaluations Committee, and in May 2010 was appointed to the Labor and Employment Committee. In June 2010, Ms. Arrindell was elected to the Illinois State Bar Association Assembly. She is a member of the Class of 2008 of the Illinois Women’s Institute for Leadership, and was the recipient of the YWCA Women of Excellence Award in 1999.

Ms. Arrindell’s law school accomplishments include receiving a 2003-2006 College of Law Scholarship, and a Celia M. Howard Scholarship in 2004-2006. She participated in numerous competitions, including Duberstein Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition, Fredrick Green Moot Court Competition, the American Bar Association Client Counseling Competition and Negotiation Competition. In addition, Ms. Arrindell served terms as Vice President and Secretary of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. Through her volunteer efforts she received the Pro Bono Notation. Ms. Arrindell was also a member of the University of Illinois College of Law Trial Team and a mediator for the University’s Office of Student Conflict Resolution. Ms. Arrindell’s presentations include:

• “Family Medical Leave Act,” Hinshaw Breakfast Briefing Springfield, Illinois, February 2012.
• “Preparing Effective Answers and Motions in Civil Litigation,” Office of the Illinois Attorney General, Springfield, Illinois, May 2011.
• “Riding the Wave: Understanding the Ups and Downs of Social Media,” roundtable discussion, Hinshaw and the Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, February 2011.
• “The Ever-Expanding Coverage of the Family and Medical Leave Act,” at Hinshaw’s 2010 Annual Labor & Employment Seminar, in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, October 2010.

Ms. Arrindell is a former troop leader with the Girl Scouts of Central Illinois and a 2008-2010 board member of the Springfield Urban League. She serves as a board member for Girl Scouts of Central Illinois.

She is a past member of the Springfield Mayor’s Leadership 2020 Strategic Planning organization and was a member and board member of Leadership Springfield Association.

She was a corporate mentor for Big Brother Big Sister and also a mentor for the Sangamon County Juvenile Probation Division.