School Board Issues

A. Lynn Himes Related Seminars and Products

Equity Partner

Himes,Petrarca & Fester Chtd.

Lynn Himes’ experience as a management labor and employment lawyer began when he left the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) and joined the Washington, D.C. law firm of Braude, Marguiles.  His clients were construction contractors, architects and surety bond companies.   In 1979, Lynn moved to Chicago and joined the law firm of Brydges, Riseborough, Morris, Franke and Miller, where he became a partner and practiced labor, employment, construction and school law. He joined Himes, Petrarca & Fester in 1986 as an equity partner.  Lynn represents Boards of Education and other units of local government.   He has negotiated hundreds of collective bargaining agreements and he has handled countless grievance arbitrations and unfair labor practice charges before the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board and the Illinois Labor Relations Board.   He devotes substantial time to defending employers against claims of employment discrimination. He also has a breadth of experience handling school law matters including construction issues, student issues and detachment/annexation hearings. Lynn has completed the IEA Interest Based Bargaining training, its training as an IBB facilitator and its Trainer of Trainers coursework.  He has also completed the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service’s IBB training.  Lynn regularly represents school boards using IBB and often serves in the dual role as the facilitator and the board’s legal representative. Lynn is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the National Council of School Attorneys.  He is a past Chairman of the Illinois Council of School Attorneys and a past member of its Board of Directors. He is a member of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board’s Advisory Committee and the Board of Advisors for the Chicago Kent Law School Public Sector Labor Relations Annual Conference. Lynn also serves on the Illinois Association of School Business Officials, Committee on Legal Practices. A native of North Carolina, Lynn attended Davidson College, North Carolina on ROTC and football scholarships. Thereafter, he received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of North Carolina, School of Law. Lynn served as a captain in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, and ultimately served as a Senior Trial attorney for the Department of the Army. In addition to the law degree, he received from the University of North Carolina School of Law, Lynn also received his Masters of Laws and Letters in Labor Law from Georgetown University. Lynn has been selected by his peers as a Martindale Hubbel AV Preeminent attorney and, also, selected to the Super Lawyers of Illinois, the Leading Lawyers of Illinois, and the Top Lawyers of Chicago.

Heidi Karr Sleper Related Seminars and Products

Sleper, Kurtz, Sleper & Exline, LLC

Heidi Karr Sleper is the co-founder of Kurtz, Sleper & Exline, LLC in Wheaton. Heidi has worked for almost twenty years in private practice as an advocate for employees' rights in the workplace as well as representing the employment related needs of small businesses.

Heidi specializes in representing public employees working at municipal, county, and State levels of government.

Heidi has successfully represented clients in negotiations, agency proceedings, and trial involving claims of sexual harassment, retaliation, and discrimination, FMLA claims, retaliatory discharge and whistleblower claims, First Amendment retaliation, and defamation. Heidi has also argued successfully before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Heidi’s extensive litigation experience encompasses being a part of a trial team winning significant verdicts including the trial of Lewis v. Country Club Hills, in which the jury awarded Ms. Lewis, a female firefighter, $11.2 million in her sexual harassment case, and Burruss v. Cook County Sheriff, et al. in which the firm obtained a verdict for 21 Cook County Correctional Officers in the amount of $1,600,000 for political retaliation and discharge. Heidi has also negotiated sizeable settlements on behalf of firefighters across the Midwest for sexual harassment and discrimination; on behalf of a police officer for First Amendment Retaliation based on concerted activity and speech as President of the local FOP chapter; and on behalf of teachers and school administrators for breach of contract and retaliatory discharge.

Heidi received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Nebraska College of Law during which she was honored as being the top of her class in Native American Law. Heidi was also involved in the Women’s Law Caucus, Equal Justice Society, Alternative Dispute Resolution organization, and the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys/American Association for Justice. Heidi received her bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a minor in English also from the University of Nebraska.

Heidi is admitted to practice law in the State of Illinois, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.

Heidi is a member of the National Employment Lawyers Association - Illinois chapter and the DuPage Bar Association and is past-Chair of the DuPage Bar Association Labor & Employment Committee.

Bonnie Booth Related Seminars and Products

llinois Education Association, NEA