Franczek P.C.

Focus on the employer side

Franczek P.C. is a Chicago law firm that concentrates on two fields: labor and employment law, and education law. On the employment side it represents management, and it works for clients in both the private and public sectors. Employee benefits fall inside that same practice. The firm says it counsels, advises and represents employers, so the work spans plain guidance as well as representation in disputes.

Management-side employment law covers the decisions an employer makes week to week. Common matters include hiring and discharge, discipline, workplace policies, wage and hour rules, and the terms of union contracts. Public-sector employers answer to extra procedural rules on top of ordinary employment law. Franczek works for both kinds of employer, private and public. In my opinion the value of a firm in this space often shows up before a dispute, in the advice that keeps an employer inside the law.

Employee benefits work has its own body of law. Retirement plans and health plans answer to federal rules such as ERISA, and mistakes there can reach both the employer and the plan's members. Placing benefits inside the labor and employment group lets one firm handle a benefits question that grows out of a workforce decision. Franczek lists benefits as part of its labor and employment practice, so a client with a plan issue and a personnel issue can bring both to the same place.

The education law practice

The firm's second field is schools and colleges. Franczek represents educational institutions, and it names two tracks: K-12 education and higher education. Those two settings raise different legal questions, so separating them is a practical choice for the client. A school district deals with board governance, student matters and staff who are often unionized. A university carries its own mix of employment, governance and regulatory work.

K-12 work and higher education work diverge in practice. A school district answers to an elected board, follows the state school code, and often bargains with teacher and support-staff unions. A college answers to a different set of rules, including accreditation standards, federal funding conditions, and campus policy. Naming both tracks tells a client that the firm takes each on its own terms.

Education matters often sit close to labor and employment, since a large share of a school's legal work involves its own employees. A firm that already runs a management-side employment practice can carry that knowledge into the education group. As a reviewer, I read the pairing of these two fields as a deliberate fit, and the overlap in employment work supports it.

How the team is organized

The attorney directory lists a mix of ranks. Franczek names partners, associates, a managing partner and of counsel lawyers, which is the usual shape of a mid-size firm. Among the partners the site names are Kaitlin Atlas, Nicki Bazer, David J. Braun, Brian Crowley, Ares Dalianis, Adam Dauksas and Amy Kosanovich Dickerson. The associates the site names include John W. Anders, Zoë Green Appler, Brittany Begley, Jared Costanzo and Rachel Domash.

The balance between partners and associates in the directory points to a firm where experienced lawyers stay close to the daily work. That structure suits a client who wants a partner engaged on the matter itself. The managing partner title marks a firm large enough to need formal leadership while it stays inside mid-size range.

The of counsel role that the directory lists usually marks a senior lawyer who works with the firm in a role lighter than a partner's. For a client, that title can mean access to long experience on a specific kind of matter. The mix of partners, associates and of counsel gives the firm several levels to staff a case.

Who the clients are

Franczek describes a client base that runs across sectors. It lists businesses, educational institutions, Fortune 100 companies and public-sector entities. The mix on that list shows a firm that works for very different kinds of client under one roof.

Serving a Fortune 100 employer and a local school board asks for flexibility in staffing and cost. Large corporate matters can pull in several attorneys at once. A single school board question may need one lawyer and a fast answer. A firm that keeps both types of client, as Franczek says it does, sizes each team to the job.

Public-sector clients bring rules that private employers never meet. Open-meeting laws govern how a public board decides, public-records laws open documents to disclosure, and civil-service systems limit how a public employer disciplines its staff. A firm that advises public bodies folds these rules into ordinary employment advice. Franczek's work for public-sector entities places it inside that framework.

How the work typically moves

A management-side employment matter can begin long before any claim. An employer asks whether a policy is lawful, or how to handle a discipline case, and the firm advises. When a charge does arrive, it often goes first to an agency such as the EEOC or a state civil rights body, and only later to court. A firm that knows both the advice stage and the hearing stage can guide an employer through the whole sequence.

Union work adds a further channel. Collective bargaining runs on its own calendar, and a contract dispute can head to grievance arbitration before it ever sees a court. A management-side firm reads the contract, the past practice between the parties, and the labor statutes at the same time. This is steady work for an employer with a unionized workforce, and it sits squarely in Franczek's stated focus.

When a matter reaches court

Litigation defense is the last channel, and it looks different from counseling. Employment claims can land in state or federal court, and a management-side firm defends the employer there. Trial and appeal work asks for a different skill set from advice, and a firm that offers both can stay on a matter through its whole life.

Education disputes follow their own paths. A special-education disagreement may run through a due-process hearing before it reaches a court. An employment question inside a school can involve both the union contract and the state school code. Franczek's two fields meet inside cases like these, where a school is also an employer.

Roots and size

Franczek opened in February 1994 with a dozen attorneys. The firm describes itself today as mid-size, so it has grown past that first group while keeping a defined scope. More than three decades of continuous practice in the same two fields gives the firm a long track in labor, employment and education law. In my opinion that consistency counts for a client who is choosing a firm.

Franczek keeps its main office in Chicago and also lists a Champaign, Illinois location. That second Illinois base broadens the firm's reach beyond the Chicago area. A firm rooted in Chicago with a downstate listing can work for clients across the state.