Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins, Ltd.

Who the firm represents

The firm works mostly for units of local government in Illinois. Its clients include cities, towns and villages, school districts, libraries and library districts, fire protection districts and other special districts. It also takes on private corporations and individuals. That mix gives the firm a public law core with a private law edge.

Its attorneys work in two roles. Some are general counsel to a government body and handle the steady flow of legal questions that a village or district produces. Others handle a single project or dispute as special counsel. In my opinion the general counsel role is the more telling of the two, because it means a client has handed the firm its whole routine legal life.

Work for a public body carries public rules. Decisions get made in open meetings, budgets come from taxpayers, and the record stays open to residents. A firm built around that setting has to read both the statute and the way a board runs its business.

How the firm began

The firm dates to 1935, when Paul Klenk and Franklin Klein started it to serve municipalities across the state. Klenk had been mayor of Blue Island. Klein represented the Blue Island Park District along with local elementary and high school districts. So the municipal focus was present in the first year of the firm.

The name grew with the partnership. Art Thorpe joined and the firm became Klein & Thorpe. Newell Jenkins came next, and he had been the first village manager of Maywood. A former village manager brings the client's own point of view into the firm, which matters for the kind of counsel a board wants. By the firm's own count, it has reached 90 years of work for Illinois municipalities.

The range of legal work

Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins lists eleven practice groups. Municipal Law and Special Districts form the core, joined by Election Law, Library Law and School Law, the fields a public body meets often. Around them run Construction Law, Environmental Law, Labor and Employment, Real Estate Law, Corporate Law, and Wealth and Succession Planning.

The list shows how the public and private sides connect. A village that the firm advises on municipal questions may also need real estate or construction help on a public building. Environmental Law reaches the same clients when a project touches land, water or contamination rules. Library Law and School Law speak to two of the special districts that Illinois runs as separate taxing bodies.

For the private clients, the firm names Corporate Law and Wealth and Succession Planning. Those two cover the companies and individuals a municipal firm tends to meet through its public work: a business with a zoning matter, an owner planning an estate. Labor and Employment covers both sides, since public bodies and private employers both hire, discipline and negotiate with staff.

How the team is built

The firm has more than 30 attorneys. Most of the names it publishes carry the title of partner, which points to a senior-weighted roster. James V. Ferolo holds the title of president. Partners named on the site include Carlos S. Arévalo, Terrence M. Barnicle, James P. Bartley, Thomas P. Bayer, Anthony G. Becknek, Sheryl H. Churney, Carmen P. Forte Jr., E. Kenneth Friker and Jason A. Guisinger. Daniel W. Bourgault and Megan E. Carlson are the associates it lists.

The attorneys work from five offices: Chicago, Orland Park, Streator, Vernon Hills and Westmont. As a reviewer, I read that spread as a way to keep lawyers near the suburban and downstate governments the firm serves. A downtown Chicago base anchors the group, and the four other locations put staff closer to clients outside the city. For a firm whose clients meet on weeknights in village halls across a wide area, that geography does real work.

How municipal work usually runs

Public sector clients bring a particular rhythm. A village board or school board meets in public, votes in public and keeps a record that residents can request. General counsel to such a body reviews contracts, drafts ordinances, answers open meetings and public records questions, and attends the meetings where votes carry legal weight. Special districts, such as fire protection or library districts, follow the same public rules on a smaller budget.

Election Law shows how tight these calendars get. Nomination papers, objections and ballot questions all run to deadlines fixed by statute, and a challenge can move to a hearing within days. School Law runs on its own cycle of student matters, staff questions, board governance and the property work a district faces when it builds or repairs. The groups the firm publishes line up with these steady demands of government work.

The private side and everyday matters

The firm's private work covers a familiar set of matters. Corporate Law handles the formation, contracts and governance that a company needs. Real Estate Law covers purchases, sales, leases and the title questions behind them. Wealth and Succession Planning reaches wills, trusts and the transfer of a business or an estate to the next generation. These are the areas where a municipal firm often keeps its long-term individual clients.

Construction Law ties the two sides together. A public building, a road or a water project raises the same contract, bidding and payment questions that a private developer faces, with public procurement rules added on top. The firm's list of groups, read alongside its client base, gives a clear picture of a firm built around Illinois local government with private work attached. The firm counts more than 30 attorneys and 90 years of work for Illinois municipalities.

Additional attorney roles

The roster identifies another group of partners beyond those already noted. Everette M. Hill, Howard C. Jablecki, Michael T. Jurusik, Lance C. Malina, Michael A. Marrs and Thomas M. Melody each hold that title. The remaining partners listed are Mallory A. Milluzzi, Scott E. Nemanich, Anne M. Skrodzki, Scott F. Uhler, J. Allen Wall and Dennis G. Walsh. For directory users, these names fill out the partnership without assigning practice areas that the record does not provide.

The firm also uses two titles outside the partner and associate ranks. James M. Joyce is a senior associate, while James A. Rhodes is of counsel. Those distinctions give prospective clients a more precise view of each lawyer's position in the firm. They may also help a client understand why an attorney appears on a matter even when that lawyer is outside the partnership.

Kaylee M. Hartman, Lily C. McKay, Peter J. Nickell, Colleen M. Shannon and Troy P. Wallace are listed as associates. Taken with the senior associate and of counsel designations, the published roster separates several levels of attorney responsibility. The listing does not attach biographies to these names, so the titles are the clearest available guide to their roles.

The Chicago listing and contact details

The Chicago office has a specific street address at 120 S. LaSalle St. That detail matters for clients who need to deliver documents or confirm where an in-person meeting will occur. The formal business name is Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins, Ltd., while the directory name uses the shorter Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins. Keeping both forms in view can help when checking correspondence, engagement papers or office records.

The contact record begins with 312-984-6400. It also publishes 708-349-3888 and 815-672-3116. The different numbers give callers several direct contact points within the firm's Illinois office network. Since the record does not label each number by location or department, callers should use the published office information to confirm that they have reached the appropriate branch.