Practice Areas

Legal Services

Our areas of expertise are ideal for the legal issues listed below.  Please review our legal services and call Schaefers Law Group and schedule your free consultation today.  

Our <br>Legal Services

Our
Legal Services

  • Business Litigation
  • Non-compete Enforcement and Litigation
  • Employee Departures and Compensation Litigation
  • Trade Secrets and Unfair Competition
  • Business Ownership and Management Agreements and Disputes
  • Real Estate Litigation
  • Banking and UCC Litigation
  • Commercial Collections
  • Temporary Restraining Orders (TROs) and Injunctions
  • Cyber-Fraud and Email/Text Hacking and Abuse
  • Arbitrations and Mediations
  • Outside General Counsel and Registered Agency

Business Litigation

We’ve handled a wide range of commercial litigation matters.  Our cases involved breaches of purchase and sale agreements, buy/sell agreements, supply agreements, distribution agreements, marketing agreements, license agreements, franchise agreements, agency agreements, independent contractor agreements, consulting agreements, and many others.  We’ve represented plaintiffs and defendants in antitrust cases involving price-fixing, wage-fixing, monopolization, price discrimination, and market allocation. We’ve worked on matters involving civil RICO violations, fraud, consumer fraud, deceptive practices, conversion, commercial disparagement and defamation, and other cases sounding in commercial fraud and abuse.  Whatever your commercial or business litigation issue, we’re ready, willing, and able to help.

Non-compete Enforcement and Litigation

Businesses routinely use noncompete, nonsolicitation, and nondisclosure agreements to protect themselves, whether against former employees, those who sold them the business, potential business partners, and others.  Some agreements (sometimes called “restrictive covenants”) can be enforced, others not. Courts often refuse to enforce heavy-handed employment noncompetes which unfairly restrict a person’s right to make a living. In some cases, and otherwise enforceable noncompete will not be enforced after the fact due to the employee’s life situation, or because the employer’s business has changed.  NDAs too require sophisticated analysis of the allegedly confidential information and whether it is legally protectable under state or federal employment laws. If you are looking to protect your business from unfair competition or intellectual property loss, or are looking to defend yourself against alleged violations of restrictive covenants, we can help.

Employee Departures and Compensation Litigation

Employees leave.  Happens every day.  Sometimes the break is not very clean.  At Schaefers Law Group, we work with employers and employees alike in accomplishing a clean break, first of all, but if that cannot be done or the messy breakup already happened, we aggressively represent the company or employee in getting what they deserve.  Sometimes it’s a buyout or cashout of an equity incentive plan, other times it’s formulating a fair severance agreement, others it’s a dispute of the final compensation owed up to termination. We have years of experience working with companies and departing employees in protecting and vindicating their rights, whether in settlement or in court.

Trade Secrets and Unfair Competition

We have represented dozens of trade secrets plaintiffs and defendants.  Companies and business people often have their confidential information stolen by competitors and former employees.  Other companies and business people are unfairly targeted by competitors or embittered former employers for perfectly legitimate competition.  Trade secrets cases require sophisticated analysis and application of complex legal principles, and often even more complex technologies and processes that were allegedly misappropriated.  At Schaefers Law Group, we use our years of experience with trade secrets laws, and our partnerships with forensic and subject matter experts, to swiftly determine the nature and extent of an alleged theft of trade secrets, and, if necessary, to present them cleanly and crisply to the judge or jury.

Business Ownership and Management Agreements and Disputes

Just like people, sometimes businesses go through a divorce.  We’ve represented stakeholders in all types of organizations – corporations, partnerships, LLCs, and nonprofits – in situations involving shareholder or management freezeouts, unfair dilution of ownership, mismanagement, asset diversion, and other breaches of fiduciary duties, shareholder agreements, partnership agreements, operating agreements, and more.  We’ve handled cases under Illinois, Delaware, and other states’ law. We’ve worked with forensic accountants to properly account for and distribute company assets. If you’re considering a business breakup or you’ve been sued as an owner or manager, we can help.

Real Estate Litigation

We’ve been involved in all manner of real estate litigation, including disputes over real estate investments, financing, sale contracts, construction contracts, leases, landlord-tenant, deeds, mortgages, reverse mortgages, foreclosures, evictions, assignments of rents, broker and agent commissions, title claims, slander of title, lis pendenses, specific performance, rescission, and many others.  We have also represented residential and commercial neighbors in property damage, trespass, nuisance, and quiet-enjoyment cases. Any claim involving real property, we can help.

Banking and UCC Litigation

We’ve represented a number of banks in unique situations.  In one case alone we collected just under $8 million from a wealthy borrower would didn’t pay the property taxes.  We’ve represented banks whose borrowers defrauded them with fraudulently endorsed checks. Banks in priority disputes between mortgagees, lienholders, and distressed property buyers (in one instance not only affirming the bank’s victory on appeal, but also obtaining sanctions against the appellant).  Banks in prior foreclosure cases where the borrower or its assignee challenged the court’s jurisdiction years after the fact. We’ve represented the FDIC as receiver of failed banks, and subsequent buyers of the failed bank’s loans. And banks weighing loan enforcement against loan cancellation, and the legal and tax consequences of each.  We’ve also represented accountholders in fraudulent double-deposit cases, including their banks’ warranty and indemnification obligations under the federal Check 21 Act. And borrowers in cases where the banks may not have complied with their loss-mitigation obligations under new Illinois Supreme Court rules. If you’re a bank or a company dealing with a bank, we can handle your dispute.

Commercial Collections

We have extensive experience in collecting unpaid debts for goods and services sold.  Our collection clients include multinational auto parts distributors, machine parts manufacturers, mass transportation companies, real estate investors and managers, and more.  We think and work outside the box in pursuing a debtor’s assets, including frequent use of statutory prejudgment attachment and fraudulent transfer remedies. And not only do we get the judgment, but we enforce it in supplementary proceedings, including citations to discover assets, garnishments, and wage deductions.  We also have experience on the other side of the aisle, having represented defendants and debtors against unfair collection practices. If you have a debt needing or facing collection, we can help.

Temporary Restraining Orders (TROs) and Injunctions

We have successfully obtained and opposed restraining orders and injunctions in a range of industries and situations, including prevention of improper brokers liens, destruction of leased property, alleged shareholder freeze-outs (squeeze-outs), and even stalking.  Through our use of advanced information and e-filing technologies, our partnerships with dependable litigation vendors, and our ability to bounce throughout the Chicago area, we rapidly respond to and spring into action for emergency situations where time is of the essence.  Any immediate assistance you need, we can provide.

Cyberfraud and Email/Text Hacking and Abuse

We have successfully represented plaintiffs victimized by email hacking and wire fraud.  We’ve gone after people who have sent threatening and defamatory emails and text messages.  We have successfully defended defendants accused of violations of federal email privacy laws.  We partner with sophisticated forensic experts to quickly and inexpensively get to the bottom of alleged cyberfraud, the threats and incidents of which are on the rise in an increasingly technological world.

Arbitrations and Mediations

Many cases can be resolved more quickly and inexpensively through arbitration and mediation.  Each often provides a measure of confidentiality, informality, and expedience which court litigation does not.  An arbitration proceeds much like a trial, though with less formality, and involves the presentation of witnesses, documents, and other evidence, and the arbitration award is usually binding and unappealable.  Mediation, though non-binding, allows each side to attempt resolution with a retired judge or seasoned practitioner, who provides his/her unique experience and insight into the law and procedure to give the parties an informed and less expensive way to resolve their disputes.

Outside General Counsel and Registered Agency

For a number of our clients, we are the first call for anything legal, serving as their ‘outside inside’ counsel.  We provide prompt and dependable advice and direction to our institutional clients, whatever their needs. We serve as registered agents and maintain their organizational status with the Secretary of State, providing that service free of charge, only passing the filing fees through to the client.  And for appropriate clients, we will charge a fixed monthly retainer, thus providing such clients free work during months of heavy volumes.

Schaefers Law Group Wheaton IL Legal Services 7
Schaefers Law Group is committed to providing you with smart, honest, tough, and professional representation.  

Take decisive action today by calling Schaefers Law Group and scheduling your FREE consultation.