Heidi Karr Sleper
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.
