Donner & Company Law Offices LLC

10/18/2026

✨ **Thank You to Our 27th Annual Gala Sponsors!** ✨

The Illinois Bar Foundation extends our heartfelt thanks to our generous sponsors for helping make our 27th Annual Gala a memorable evening of celebration, impact, and commitment to justice.

Your support makes our work possible, helping us expand access to justice for Illinoisans with limited means and support lawyers in need.

We are grateful to each of you for standing with us as we celebrate 75 years of impact and look toward the future. Together, we are making a difference across Illinois! 💙

Half Table Sponsors
Giamanco Law Partners, Ltd
Law Office of Ted Diamantopoulos
STEPHAN ZOURAS, LLP
U.S. Legal Support

Gold Program Book Sponsors
Perry & Michelle Browder
JAMS
Donald R. Tracy

Coat Check Sponsor
Signature, a division of Esquire Bank

Silver Program Book Sponsors
Kelly & Castagna
Turner Law Group

Champion Sponsors
Berlin Melzer Law LLC
Hon. Sonni Choi Williams
Sandra Crawford
Donner & Company Law Offices LLC
DuPage County Bar Association
Dennis M. Lynch and Coleman Lynch & Workplace Law Partners,
Andreaa Ramos
Wiggins Law, LLC

10/13/2026

PILI is celebrating its tenth anniversary in DuPage County (with the DuPage County Bar Association) and hosting an event at the DuPage Historical Museum that I wouldn't miss for the moon. They're honoring a firm (MKFM) and individual (John Kelly) for their contributions to pro bono work this last year -- and Melissa Piwowar is getting the Legacy Award for her efforts in this arena over the years -- including the work she did to first get PILI established in DuPage back in 2016! Cause to celebrate indeed!

09/18/2026

The 2026 Expungement Summit in DuPage was a huge success, thanks to the never ending dedication of folks like these (maybe not counting that yahoo on the far right side of the photograph)….

09/18/2026

IBF! IBF! IBF!

We had a wonderful evening at our Past Presidential Reception on Wednesday, September 16, honoring Hon. Bridget C. Duignan and Lauren N. Tuckey.

We are grateful to our generous sponsors for helping make this special evening possible and for their continued support of the Illinois Bar Foundation and our mission to advance access to justice and support lawyers in need.

Thank you for being an important part of our work! 💙



🔹Benefactor Sponsor
Illinois State Bar Association

🔹 Patron Sponsors�Cullen, Haskins, Nicholson & Menchetti P.C.�Weiss & Villalobos, LLC

🔹 Friend Sponsors�Coleman Lynch and Partners
Constant, Wawrzynek & Grove Law Office
Donner & Company Law Offices LLC
The Evans International Law Firms, LLC
Hon. Megan Goldish
Marcos A. Resendiz
Komie & Associates

Pictures of the evening coming soon!

08/25/2026

Richard Gabriel, the insightful, creative and downright brilliant trial consultant (and my co-author on Jury Selection: Strategy & Science) was in Chicago this week. He had just a bit of time available so he came by to talk to the students in our jury selection class at Loyola (with his colleague, Jade Larson). Richard has been helping out with this class via Zoom for many years but this was a rare chance for the students to work with Jade and him in person —and we sure appreciated it!

07/10/2026

It’s hard to believe this program has been going nationwide for ten years now. Thanks to people like Buck Lewis, the attorney in Tennessee who founded it, Shawn Kasserman, the IBF President who urged its funding in Illinois, Lisa Colpoys, the ILAO Exec who got it off the ground in Illinois, and Michael Bergmann, the PILI Exec who’s lead the charge here this last many years to keep it going and growing… we all have cause to be grateful for this program. It provides legal access on a very important, basic level, to anyone who can just find a computer, at home or in a library, to type in their questions. Congratulations Free Legal Answers… I’m off to answer question no. 500,001, as I’m sure the other 16,999 lawyers (or so) who’ve signed up to help this program probably are as well - and we’re all mighty glad to be here!

06/12/2026

It’s going to be a great year for the Illinois Bar Foundation!

06/11/2026

06/10/2026

I see these folks at least twice every year, when the DCBA past presidents all gather before Thanksgiving to celebrate another year and, in June, when we all dress up in our black tie/Sunday best to welcome a new member to the club. This year, we witnessed Hal Connick’s swearing in as our new president, someone whose year we all most certainly look forward to. Congratulations, Hal! -Ted

05/14/2026

I’m pleased to report that I’ve been appointed to serve on the Illinois Supreme Court's Committee on Equal Justice’s Jury Diversity Subcommittee. This is an assignment specifically focused on reviewing the state's rules, policies, and procedures for summoning prospective jurors, an area of concern that I have long focused on in my academic work and publications. -Ted