Steven Elrod
Managing Partner
Elrod Friedman LLP
Steve Elrod represents private and public sector clients on land use, zoning and real estate matters. He is the co-founding partner of Elrod Friedman LLP and serves as the firm’s Managing Partner.
Steve is a past-president of the Chicago Bar Association, the largest metropolitan bar association in the nation.
He is the Corporation Counsel for the City of Highland Park, and the Village Attorney for the Villages of Deerfield, Glencoe, Lincolnwood and Northbrook. Steve represents owners and developers in a variety of real estate and transactional projects, and is regularly engaged to secure zoning relief, entitlements, incentives and approvals from state and local governments.
This past year, Elrod has been intensely involved in a matter that has been in the international spotlight. As the corporation counsel for the city of Highland Park, IL, Elrod has been advising and consulting the city on a myriad of legal issues resulting from the horrific mass shooting event that took place in the city during the Fourth of July Independence Day parade. Elrod appeared with the city’s Mayor before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee and met with United States Attorney General Merrick Garland concerning proposals to ban assault weapons. He is currently defending the city, along with co-counsel Sidley Austin on a Second Amendment challenge to a city ordinance.
His practice focuses on:
- Public-private partnerships
- Tax incentive and abatement agreements, including tax increment financing (TIF) and special
- service area (SSA) financing
- Annexation, subdivision and development agreements
- Shopping center, multi-family residential and mixed-use developments
- Affordable and attainable housing programs
Steve has litigated land use issues, including eminent domain, regulatory taking and inverse condemnation, RLUIPA, the First Amendment and the Second Amendment. He drafted, and successfully defended a federal court challenge to, the City of Highland Park Assault Weapons Ban ordinance.
Steve is an adjunct professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, where he teaches Land Use and Local Government Law. He is a founding member of the North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic and serves on its Board of Directors.
Chambers USA 2022 placed Steve in its highest possible ranking level, “Star Individuals,” and included the following observations: Steve is a “preeminent attorney in land use and local government matters… he “is a recognized leader in the area of municipal law”
