O'Flaherty Law

Focus and practice areas

General practice is the firm's model, so a single client can bring several different legal matters to the same office. Its work covers family law and divorce, estate planning, probate and estate administration, litigation and dispute resolution, and business and corporate law. The firm also handles real estate, immigration, DUI and criminal defense, and guardianship.

Within family law, the firm takes on divorce, child custody, child support, visitation, maintenance, and adoption. One attorney can follow a case as it shifts, since a divorce often carries custody and support questions inside it. In my opinion, that continuity is worth a lot to a client who is already under strain.

That breadth has a practical use. A client buying a first home might also want a will drawn up, and a business owner facing a contract dispute might need estate planning for the same company. A general-practice firm can keep both jobs in one place, and the client explains the background once.

How the team grew

Kevin O'Flaherty founded the firm in 2011 and still owns it. It began with him as the only attorney and has grown to a team the firm describes as 10 or more full-time licensed attorneys, plus support staff.

That size changes how the work gets divided. With more than ten licensed attorneys on staff, the firm can keep separate people on family law, litigation, estate matters, and business questions, so a client usually works with someone whose days are spent in that field.

Numbers like these shape a client's day-to-day experience. Support staff handle scheduling, filing, and document flow, which lets the attorneys spend more of their hours on the legal questions themselves. A firm of this size can also cover for absence, so a case keeps moving when one person is out.

What the founder describes

Kevin O'Flaherty has linked the firm's approach to the dental practice his parents ran. He names two ideas from it: treat employees and clients well, and be good at the work. As a reviewer, I read that as a plain account of how he wants the office to run, and it matches a general-practice firm that expects to see clients across more than one kind of matter.

The litigation and business side

Civil litigation

On the litigation side, the firm covers disputes headed for court and those settled before a filing. A civil case usually opens with a complaint, moves through a discovery stage where each side exchanges documents and takes testimony, and reaches either a settlement or a trial. Most civil claims close well before a courtroom, though the option of trial shapes how each side bargains.

Business and corporate work

Business and corporate work covers the earlier stage of a company's life: forming entities, drafting and reviewing contracts, and setting the terms of a deal before any dispute starts. When a disagreement does reach court, the litigation team can take it forward, so a business client stays with the same firm as a matter changes shape.

Family, estate, and guardianship matters

How a divorce moves

A divorce in Illinois begins with a petition filed in the circuit court for the county where a spouse lives. A judge can set temporary orders for support or custody while the case runs. Many of these cases end in a written settlement, and some reach a trial. When a family adds a child through adoption, the court reviews the placement before it issues a final order.

Probate and estate administration

Probate follows a separate track. After a death, an estate with assets in one person's name often passes through probate court, where the judge appoints an executor named in the will, or an administrator when there is none. That person gathers the assets, pays valid debts, and passes on what remains.

Estate planning arranges those transfers ahead of time. A will directs who receives what, a trust can hold assets for named people and skip parts of probate, and a power of attorney lets someone act on another's behalf during illness. The firm handles both the planning documents and the probate cases that follow, which puts the same office on both sides of that timeline.

Guardianship

Guardianship in Illinois goes before a probate judge, who decides whether an adult or a minor needs someone appointed to manage personal or financial decisions. The court weighs medical evidence and the wishes of the people involved, then names a guardian and sets the limits of that role. The firm handles these petitions alongside its probate and estate work, and these matters often touch the same families.

Where the firm operates

The firm set up its main office in Naperville, Illinois in the summer of 2018. That office holds the intake and legal operations teams, which handle the first contact with clients and the daily running of open cases.

A network of offices

The firm reports 25 or more locations across Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and it counts four states in its total. For someone comparing options, the count matters less than proximity. A nearby office shortens the trips for signings, hearings, and in-person meetings that a legal matter still requires. The Naperville office is the operational base for that network.