The view out of the Kemper Building at 1 E. Wacker Drive is magnificent, sprawling out to an eagle’s view of the Chicago River and the Loop. But when Deanna Cairo Arthur, now an associate at Goldberg Weisman & Cairo Ltd., would visit her father’s office as a child, it wasn’t the window that drew her attention. It was a desk chair.

“I just remember being little and being in my dad’s office, sitting in his chair and always hoping someday it would be my chair,” she says.

Her father is Louis C. “Lou” Cairo, senior partner at Illinois’ largest personal injury firm. Along with her brother, Louis Anthony Cairo, who found out he passed the bar in March, Deanna is part of the next generation of Cairos in the legal profession.

“While I am very proud of being the boss’s daughter, it’s always been important for me to be my own person and sort of make my own name and be ‘Deanna Cairo’ versus ‘Louis Cairo’s daughter, Deanna Cairo,’” she says. “I think there were expectations, either people assumed we would fail or that we would just ride on our dad’s coattails.”

Even if coasting were an option at the firm — and it’s not — the younger Cairos have never taken advantage of that, their father proudly states.

“Usually when you look at a lawyer who works in a firm where their father is a managing partner or a senior partner or a big shot in the firm, they kind of come in and think they’re above the law, so to speak, and they don’t have to work as hard as the other associates, and they get special hours because daddy’s the boss and they can kind of take advantages, maybe talk to people in a little bit of a condescending tone when it’s not appropriate,” Lou Cairo says. “My kids have never done that.”

Even if coasting were an option at the firm — and it’s not, the younger Cairos have never taken advantage of that, their father proudly states.

Lou Cairo says his son and daughter embrace and practice the firm’s core values — hard work and respect for everyone involved in the process of helping injured clients.

“Everybody in this office, from the senior partners to the mail staff, get the same amount of respect from me and from my kids,” Lou Cairo says. “I would expect no less, and I would also allow no less.”

The two started as paralegals after college, at which point their father set the boundaries for how they should interact when he’s their boss and when he’s their father.

“I told them both exactly the same thing,” Lou Cairo says. “I said, ‘You’re my kid, so here’s the rule. You get to embarrass me or disrespect me one time, and then you’re fired.’”

Deanna Cairo planned to be an attorney all through high school and college, but was concerned after college that becoming a lawyer would mean the law becoming her life. She worked at the office as a paralegal for a few years before realizing that her childhood goal was still the correct one for her.

“I realized I don’t want to be the one just prepping the files, I wanted to be the one handling them,” she says. Lou Cairo is the son of a union construction company owner and the first in the family to go into law.

“My mother would say I had a quick tongue, my dad would say I was a smart mouth,” the elder Cairo recalls, laughing. “So they both told me when I was in grade school, ‘You should put that mouth to work. It’s going to get you into trouble. You become a lawyer, it’ll get you out of trouble.”

He started at the firm in 1981 when there were five lawyers and one secretary. Today, there are 113 employees, 40 of whom are lawyers. In his time, Cairo has worked in every facet of the firm, from the mailroom to becoming the first named partner who wasn’t a founder.

He wants the next generation of Cairos to work in all parts of the firm as well.

“I think for me, just kind of starting from the bottom, working my way, really goes to show it’s really one big unit and you need everybody moving on the same cylinder,” he says.

Deanna credits that philosophy — and her time as a paralegal — with making her a better attorney. She never wants to be a lawyer who doesn’t know how to write a request for records, for example, because that’s supposedly work that paralegals do.

“As a paralegal, you know you’re important and that the attorneys need you, but being the paralegal and becoming the attorney — the support staff are so valuable,” she says.

Her brother agrees. “It’s allowed me to understand the entire process,” Louis Anthony Cairo says. “I feel that some people who get thrown into a firm, it’s kind of a disservice to them because they don’t see how everything plays out.”

For the younger Louis Cairo, seeing his father in action helped set his path.

“I just remember being a little kid and always saying, ‘I want to grow up and do what my dad does because my dad gets to wear a suit and tie for a living,’” Louis Anthony Cairo says. “Now as I got older and graduated college, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. I figured I was going to go into law or I was going to be an entrepreneur, go into sales, or do something. The real turning point for me was when I sat on, with my dad and Mike Fisher, another one of the partners here, a trial in Galena.

“For about a week, I was there with them, helped them out with all the technology and whatnot. I could not obviously do anything practicing-wise, but that was really what solidified me going into law. Seeing my dad work during a trial is amazing.”

That was in 2010. The behind- the-scenes look at the law — particularly a dramatic cross-examination where Lou Cairo made a witness admit to lying under oath — got the younger Cairo hooked. He started studying for the LSAT shortly after.

“It kind of sounds funny, but (the attraction was) all the work that no one really sees when someone just walks in on a trial, that a plaintiff’s attorney has to do — watching my dad do an opening, do a closing,” Louis Anthony Cairo says. “What really got me was the cross-examination. I just thought that was absolutely unreal, something I was chomping at the bit to do myself.”

He says sharing his father’s name inspires him to work harder, not coast.

“I don’t want to disappoint my father, but most importantly, I don’t want to disappoint myself,” he says. “I try and do a lot of things like my dad, and one of the things is definitely work ethic. There’s no one that has a work ethic like my father, and I’m not just saying that because he’s my father. I don’t know if there are too many partners in businesses that stay at the office until 9:30 at night even when he’s been a partner for over 20 years. I don’t know of too many people who do that.”

One of the best parts of the relationship — both as a boss and as a father — comes at the union functions the Cairos attend. People Lou Cairo has worked with for years say hello and then ask about the whereabouts of Deanna, “L2” or their sister Kristina, who did not go into law.

“Over 30 years, we’ve built the firm to where it’s at on all these relationships, the majority of which are union relationships,” Lou Cairo says, smiling. “These people are now walking past me to get to my kids to say hello, which bodes well for the future of the firm.”

— Paul Dailing

Reprinted with permission from LeadingLawyers. (leadinglawyers.com)

The article read as follows:

“Revenge is sweet, but winning design awards isn’t bad either. Just ask the architects of the much-maligned restoration of the Illinois Capitol’s west wing.

“A year ago, citing the state’s pension funding crisis, Gov. Pat Quinn blasted the restoration’s most controversial detail — three sets of copper-clad wooden exterior doors that cost nearly $670,000.

‘We don’t need to have the Palace of Versailles as our state Capitol,’ Quinn said.

“Just recently, the designers of those doors, Chicago architects Vinci-Hamp, were honored at the annual awards program of the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

“At the same event, the firm’s founding partner, John Vinci, received a lifetime achievement award for such work as the salvaging and reconstruction of Louis Sullivan’s Chicago Stock Exchange trading room at the Art Institute of Chicago.

“And giving Vinci, something of an architectural triple crown, the Chicago-based historic preservation advocacy group Landmarks Illinois on November 1 recognized the Victoria-era splendor of the Capitol’s entire west wing restoration as its project of the year.”

“John Vinci, FAIA, like many of us, is almost a cliché in this community, the success of a child of immigrants. John is the youngest (mid-seventies) of seven children. Both of his parents were born in Nicosia, Sicily, and he grew up in the Saint Mary Incoronata parish (2800 S. Wells Street in Chicago), where he attended grammar school. Interestingly, the first order of Italian priests in Chicago, the Scalabrini fathers, ran the parish. Like many of us, he attended Catholic high school, St. Rita High School, and did his undergraduate work at the Illinois Institute of Technology, graduating in 1960. He is a registered architect in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin.

“Vinci has taught the history of nineteenth and twentieth century architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology (1972-1992) (2000), and at Roosevelt University (1970-1972). In recognition of his professional activities, Mr. Vinci was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1990.

“Vinci was privileged to be selected to design the National Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame, on Taylor Street in Chicago. The commission came to him largely from having previously worked with Sam Roti, the Chicago developer and, of course, George Randazzo, director of the hall and a founder. Years ago, he also did the Scoville Square Building restoration. He converted an abandoned department store building into a viable building complex with stores, shops, offices for commercial use, Industrial Fire and Casualty Corporation. For this project, Vinci won a National Award from the American Institute of Architects (1982). He was also intimately involved as an architect and moving force in the restoration of Holy Family Church near 1200 W. Roosevelt Road in Chicago.

“John Vinci and Phillips Hamp were recognized as Chicagoans of the Year in architecture for their decades-long devotion to preserving the seminal structures that make this city a beacon for designers and visitors from around the globe, as was announced by the Chicago Tribune on December 28, 2014.

“Vinci has extensive experience in the design of installations for art museums, including numerous exhibitions for the Art Institute of Chicago. Prominent exhibition installations have included “Claude Monet: 1840-1926” (1995); “Charles Rennie Mackintosh” (1997); “Renoir” (1997); “Van Gogh and Gaugin: The Studio of the South” (2001) and the reinstallation of the upper Allerton and Gunsaulus galleries (2008). Other recent exhibition installations include “Joseph Hoffman: Interiors, 1902-1913” at the Neue Galerie in New York City (2006), and “In the Studios of Paris: William Bouguereau & His American Students” at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa (2006). Vinci designed the inaugural exhibition for the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal, Quebec, (1989) and with VHA the redesign of the Milwaukee Art Museum galleries (2001).”

Vinci points out that his brothers and sisters are avid readers of Fra Noi and wanted to make sure that this author knew his offices were located around the corner from D’Amato Bakery and Bari Foods.

Another example of the best our community has to offer.

Dr. James Discipio graduated from Loyola Dental School in 1984 and received a graduate degree in oral biology in 1985. But his “career” in dentistry began long before the 1980s.

The son of a dentist, he grew up in the practice his father, Dr. Joseph Discipio, opened in 1954, right down the block from where the two men practice together now. J.V. Discipio & Associates Ltd reopened at the current location, 6737 Stanley Ave. in Berwyn, in 1956, and they have been there ever since.

“What I find most rewarding about my profession is the ability to help people maintain a high quality of life,” the younger Discipio explains. “Being able to get a person out of pain, restore the mouth and teeth to proper form and function, and establish a true relationship with our patients are all rewarding experiences; but for me, one of the most rewarding experiences is being able to work with my father for 25 years and feeling blessed to follow in his footsteps.”

Over the years, the father-son dentistry team has continually updated the practice — both physically and technically — offering their patients state-of-the-art dentistry in a caring environment.

“Our practice focuses not only on all phases of dentistry, but also on any age group. We treat families with young children, their parents and grandparents,” Dr. Jim says. “This is the family part of our practice.”

Dentistry is a very dynamic profession, he continues, adding that educating patients on both the regimens of care and the advances in technology continue to transform the way they practice.

“We have the ability to place implants, whiten teeth, fabricate porcelain crowns in one sitting and improve our diagnostic capabilities with digital x-rays,” says Dr. Jim.

In addition to service provided through the dental practice, both Dr. Jim and his father are committed to giving back to the community. “My father has always been involved in organized dentistry, becoming president of the Chicago Dental Society in 1990. When I came out of dental school, I also became involved in organized dentistry, serving on many committees in the Chicago Dental Society and being on the board of trustees for the Illinois State Dental Society. My father was always involved, and again, I followed in his footsteps.”

Eventually, Dr. Jim wanted to be involved not only in organized dentistry but in his residential community as well.

He lives in LaGrange Park with wife, Nancy, and three children, Nick, Jake and Jenna. Having served as park district commissioner as well as on the school and zoning boards, Dr. Jim became president of LaGrange Park in 2005, in and is now in his third term.

“I’ve lived in LaGrange Park most of my life and have been very fortunate to be in a position to give back to the community in which I was raised,” says Dr. Jim. “As with dentistry, I genuinely love what I do. In retrospect, I have been truly blessed. I followed my father in the profession of dentistry and was able to work with him and see first-hand the success of a quality practice.

“To give back what has been given to me is truly rewarding,” he adds. “It doesn’t get much better than this.”

J.V. Discipio & Associates Ltd

6737 Stanley Ave. | Berwyn, IL 60402 | 708-749-0133

http://www.dentistberwynil.com

Gemma B. Allen is a partner in Ladden & Allen, Chartered, a family law firm she established in 1999 to offer professional, caring and accessible representation in the areas of marriage, divorce, mediation, financial settlements, and custody matters. Prior to starting this firm, she was a partner in the notable Chicago law firms McDermott, Will & Emery, and Pretzel & Stouffer, where she was co-head of the divorce division.

Not only is Allen (maiden name Cassaretto) a prominent and respected family law attorney, she is also a visionary in the legal profession. She has conducted more than two-dozen think tanks over the years, bringing together judges, mental health practitioners, clergy, attorneys and other interdisciplinary professionals to address serious family law related matters. Because of her commitment to family law, Gemma has appeared over the years on Oprah, CNN’s “Talk Back Live,” ABC and NBC television, network radio and local Chicago broadcast outlets.

She not only represents people involved in failing or difficult marriages, custody battles and the like, as a leader in this complicated field, she is also a contributing writer and blogger for Today’s Chicago Woman magazine, and a frequent contributor to Chicago Lawyer and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. Gemma has written more than 100 articles and lectured on topics that include divorce, custody, pre-marital agreements, child support, representing children in divorce, maintenance, pre-marital education, and mediation. She is the author of a book, Secrets of Successful Partners, which is a compilation of interviews she conducted with successfully married couples of all ages.

Long active in the largest of the 144 lawyers’ organizations in Illinois, the 35,000 member Illinois State Bar Association, she has served as an appointed member of its Family Law Section Council and was co-chair of the Model Mediation Act sub-committee. She was appointed a member of the Illinois Governor’s Task Force on Child Support and the Task Force on Attorneys for Children. She has served on the Advisory Council on Women of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations.

As a caring and responsible domestic practitioner, as a substantial community leader and contributor, Gemma is the past president of two nonprofit organizations: The Lilac Tree, a resource for women at all stages of divorce, and the Forensic Forum, a membership organization that provides a platform for forensic experts in the family law field to share information, propose legislation, and work to improve the practice of domestic relations.

Gemma repeatedly has been selected by her peers as a member of the Leading Lawyers Network and a SuperLawyer, and was named by Crain’s Chicago Business as one of Chicago’s 100 Most Influential Women – no small accomplishment.

She received a B.S. magna cum laude from Loyola University of Chicago in 1966 and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, in Ann Arbor, in 1969. She and her husband Albert Nader, founder and president of Questar Entertainment, one of the country’s leading producers, marketers and distributors of non-fiction programming, have four adult children and several grandchildren.

Gemma (Cassaretto) Allen is third generation Italian-American. Her father’s family was from Genoa. She is on the board of the Loyola University Chicago’s John Felice Rome Center. Her parents were friends with founder John Felice who then became her dear friend and mentor. She and her two children attended school there.

Gemma was appointed to the center’s alumni board and currently chairs its mentoring committee. She is also on the Foundation’s advisory board which meets annually in Rome. She has said that “While I’m a proud, dedicated American, Italy is the country of my soul.”

Gemma, along with retired Judge Michele Lowrance and financial expert Terry Savage, has just published a book about modern love. It’s called “The New Love Deal: Everything You Must Know Before Marrying, Moving In or Moving On.”

“I’d do bookkeeping for family businesses and some simple tax returns,” recalls Lewis Affetto, who’s of Sicilian lineage. “It just came naturally to me. Then I took some accounting classes in high school and did very well, so I decided it was the right way to go.”

Boy, was it ever. Today Lewis and his sister Maria Gambino run Bernard A. Affetto & Co. CPAs. The other CPAs on staff include a second sister, Roxane Pope; nephew Benedict Affetto; and Lewis’ daughter, Danielle Atkins. (Dad is retired from the company that bears his name.)

One big happy number-crunching family, the Affettos make every effort to extend that brand of warm support and help to their many clients. These include Italian-American nonprofits that need assistance attaining and maintaining their 501(c)(3) status.

“As we started to grow, we started seeing a few non-profits that weren’t maintaining their tax files properly,” Affetto recalls. “We got involved in trying to help them get back on track.” The firm also does pro bono work with adult facilities for the handicapped, as Lewis’ brother has Down Syndrome.

The firm’s (and family’s) ties to the Italian-American community run deep, and actually extend to Lewis’ grandfather, Marco DeStefano. “He ran Chicago’s Columbus Day Parade for most of his life, and we were very involved as children, walking and working in the parade,” he says. As a result, “My father knew a lot of Italian Americans and, as we grew, it seemed natural to serve the community. It flowed from my grandfather and my father to us.”

The firm also works on 1,800 individual tax returns a year, and is there in the event of any complications. They can answer IRS inquiries, offer representation during an audit, and assist in filing an offer-in-compromise to settle any tax liabilities.

But the work at Affetto & Co. flows year round, not just in the weeks before April 15. The team there specializes in tax work for companies that have annual gross revenue as high as $50 million. Many of these are closely held companies, meaning that the ownership group consists of one or two owners. “The size doesn’t matter, and we can work comfortably in any industry,” Affetto says.

And should you need help starting a business, or acquiring one, the Affetto CPAs can help there, too. A key part of that involves making business projections and offering advice on issues such as incorporation an entity choice. Its other services include software consulting, guidance with tax compliance as codes change, producing audited financial statements; and assistance in seeking alternate financing.

“We’re very hands on,” Affetto says. “For the small businesses we take care of, we help manage and we almost act as comptroller. As our firm did, we’re trying to help the first generation pass things on to the second generation, so what they built can continue throughout generations. That’s what we’re doing well.”

Bernard A. Affetto & Co. CPAs
7816 W. North Ave.
Elmwood Park, IL 60707
708-453-1999
www.affettocpa.com

Victor Ciardelli, CEO and founder of Guaranteed Rate, is an innovative entrepreneur who is revolutionizing the mortgage industry. After graduating from Columbia College of Missouri and beginning his career as a loan officer in Chicago, he struck out on his own in 1992, heading up a traditional mortgage company. Eight years later, he had grown weary of the mortgage industry’s outdated methods, models and business practices, so Victor set about creating a modern, streamlined mortgage company. His ideas led to his founding of Guaranteed Rate in June 2000. Victor’s approach of offering consumers low rates and fees, an easy-to-understand process, and transparency behind the total costs of a home loan was a hit with home buyers, helping Guaranteed Rate to become Chicago’s largest independent mortgage lender within three years of its opening.

Victor continued to push forward with the company’s goals of making the mortgage process simpler, easier and faster for consumers through the use of industry-leading technology, providing a unique business model that allows loan originators the ability to close more loans faster and partnering with top realtors and supporting them with resources to help them build their business.

Today, Guaranteed Rate is the largest independent retail mortgage company in the U.S. and one of the 10 largest retail mortgage lenders overall. In 2013, the Home Purchase Experts at Guaranteed Rate funded nearly $16 billion in annual loan volume. The company’s focus on being the leader in developing and employing industry-leading technologies and processes is propelling its growth. Guaranteed Rate employs approximately 2,500 people in more than 175 offices and does business in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Victor’s efforts to transform an industry have not gone unnoticed. In 2012, Ciardelli was named the regional winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, and he was named “CEO of the Year” by Mortgage Executive Magazine in both 2012 and 2013. In addition, he was named to MPA Magazine’s 2013 “Hot 100” list of the most influential people in the mortgage industry, and was a finalist for a 2014 Hubbie Award in the “Top Digital Influencer” category.

All the while, Victor has remained committed to the community, establishing the Guaranteed Rate Foundation designed to help families and their communities in times of hardship or unexpected need. The Foundation has helped more than 300 individuals and distributed more than $250,000 in aid to date related to financial hardship, acute medical needs, disaster relief funds, and scholarship assistance.

At the same time, Guaranteed Rate’s phenomenal growth, groundbreaking technology, and the unique corporate culture established by Victor have garnered the company many honors.

Inc. Magazine has named Guaranteed Rate to the “Inc. 5000” list of fastest growing privately-held companies in the U.S. for six years running, and in 2013 named the company the No. 4 private-company job creator in the nation (and the No. 1 job creator in the real estate industry) in their Hire Power Awards.

The company has been featured in Crain’s Chicago Business’ list of the largest privately held companies and “Fast Fifty” list of the fifty fastest growing companies in Chicago for seven of the past eight years.

In 2013, the company was also named as one of “Chicago’s Top Workplaces” in the Chicago Tribune’s annual survey, the third time in four years Guaranteed Rate received the honor.

Guaranteed Rate was ranked No. 1 in Scotsman Guide’s “Top Mortgage Lenders 2013” rankings, and was named as the No. 1 mortgage company in America by Mortgage Executive Magazine in 2012.

Guaranteed Rate’s online loan application received the 2013 Moxie Award from Built in Chicago for “Best Corporate Digital Innovation,” beating out finalists from major corporations including Walgreens, Hyatt, Redbox, and Crate & Barrel.

And while the list of honors goes on, Victor is never one to rest on his laurels, and continues to drive the company toward his ultimate goals: being the No. 1 mortgage lender in the country, and creating the first fully-digital mortgage for consumers. Given how rapidly Victor’s vision is being achieved, the world should expect both to happen sooner than they think.

In 2012, Victor talked about his first job in an interview for an industry publication. He said, “I was a busboy at the Carlisle Banquet Center. You’re carrying out trays of the salads for the servers to serve. You’re cleaning up, busing tables and taking stuff back and forth. A real glamorous job. I was a young kid and wanted to make money at an early age.”

When asked who has been the most influential person in his life, the younger Ciardelli says “my dad.” Those of us who have known his dad for decades are not at all surprised.

When his father was asked a possible reason for his son’s spectacular success, the senior Ciardelli says: “we were influenced by our parents and their parents, and engrained in us were the traditional values of family, integrity, hard work, and the luck. I guess our folks brought these values from the old country.” The Ciardelli family came to this country shortly before the Depression from a little town just outside of Lucca, in northern Italy. His mother’s side is from Florence, and she came to this country with her family.

As has been the case with many of our families, the grandfather Ciardelli was the oldest of a large family in Italy and came to this country to work to send money back to support the family in Italy. Of his grandfather, the younger Ciardelli says, “I never met him. He was born in Italy, fought for the Italians in World War II. He seemed like an extremely interesting guy, and I would love to have met him and know more about him.”

Although Emilia DiMenco has never owned a business, she has spent her entire professional career helping them grow. One of her most satisfying achievements was to lead BMO Harris N.A., as an executive vice president. There, she developed initiatives to support and empower women-owned businesses. In 2010, she became chief operating officer at the Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC) and was recently promoted to president and CEO of the 28-year-old organization, selected by its co-founders and board of directors.

Many would think that leading a non-profit organization during a recession would be an obstacle, but DiMenco turned it into an advantage for the WBDC and its clients. Her first goal was to address the lack of capital, and with her leadership, talent, and tenacity, the State of Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity gave the WBDC a grant, allowing them to expand their direct lending program. Another grant from the Deluxe Foundation permitted the WBDC to launch an online/on-demand business education program in English and Spanish for new and emerging entrepreneurs, and more courses are always being added. In partnership with the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, DiMenco helped launch the Women’s Vetrepreneurship Program, which provides female veterans with entrepreneurial training, business counseling and direct lending.

Because of DiMenco’s leadership, the WBDC accelerated the development of programs and services that fuel business sustainability and growth. DiMenco’s main goals are to help clients gain access to capital, make more contacts, win more contracts and procure the capacity-building tools they need to expand. “Today most women still start a business to earn an income,” she says. “They make a tremendous investment of their time and money in their business, so they should be able to leverage that asset and monetize it to create personal wealth.”

The concept of financial independence is very important to DiMenco. She immigrated to the United States as a child and grew up in a working-class neighborhood. The household she was raised in was typical for the time, two parents and one income. “My mother’s financial dependence on my father continued throughout his life, making me realize that this was something I did not want,” she says. After earning her MBA, she married, and then divorced with an 8-year-old son. Now, he’s 22 years old and graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from Purdue University in December 2013. He works at Ricardo, an engineering consulting firm, in Burr Ridge. Obviously, as we often say in these columns, the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree.

A room in DiMenco’s house in Hinsdale has a vintage map outlining the famed bootlike shape of Italy. It was there, in Lucca, nestled in Tuscany, where Emilia, the second of four children, was born in 1954. Her dad, Vincenzo DiMenco, immigrated to America first, detouring through Pittsburgh, where he got a job as a busboy, before joining a sister in Chicago. He began working for the Illinois Central Railroad Co. as a pipe fitter, a job he would have for 30 years.

In December 1957, Emilia; her mother, Iole; and her older brother, Joe, moved to America to join her father. Two younger sisters were born in America.

After a brief stay on the West Side, they settled in south suburban Blue Island, which had a small Italian community and a railroad stop so Vincenzo DiMenco, who didn’t know how to drive at the time, could hop on the train to work.

At home, Emilia DiMenco soaked up the Italian spoken by her mother, who had worked in a paper factory in Italy when she was 21, but then, DiMenco said, “she got married, had babies, and that was the end of it.” She continued living at home after graduating from Eisenhower High School in Blue Island, commuting to the North Side for classes at DePaul University. In 1977, she took a break from DePaul to study international finance at Loyola University Chicago’s John Felice Rome Center, her first time back to Italy since her toddler years.

Three years later, DiMenco graduated with a bachelor’s degree from DePaul. While studying, she held internships and jobs at investment banks but disliked the transactional nature. Deciding instead on commercial banking, she entered a training program at Harris Bank.

The bank covered tuition for DiMenco’s Master of Business Administration degree at DePaul, which she received in 1983. Though, she said, women composed just 20 percent of her MBA class at DePaul, DiMenco estimated that women and minorities made up half of her training class at Harris.

Harris was under pressure to diversify because of a class-action lawsuit filed against it in 1977 by the U.S. Treasury Department, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and the group Women Employed. The suit alleged race and gender discrimination in the bank’s employment practices. (Other banks at the time, like Merrill Lynch, also faced race and discrimination lawsuits.) A judge ruled against Harris in 1981, awarding $12.2 million in back pay to bank employees.

“If it hadn’t been for that lawsuit,” DiMenco said, “I might never have been hired.”

DiMenco thrived at Harris. She loved the numbers. She loved the customer relationships. She loved that women had begun making inroads in finance.

About every two years, she received a promotion, going from management trainee in June 1980 to commercial banking associate to banking officer to assistant vice president to vice president by the mid-1980s.

In May 1994, DiMenco became the first female senior vice president in Harris’ corporate and commercial bank. In this role, she became particularly vocal on the need for diversity in hiring and training within the bank. Four years later, after a series of acquisitions, DiMenco wrote a thorough report to then-Harris Bank CEO Alan McNally on how Harris could leverage its position as a bank for small businesses. She was made an executive vice president in charge of business banking and put on the management committee.

During her first week at the WBDC, DiMenco experienced her greatest challenge yet. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and soon after she began medical treatment, her sister was diagnosed with cancer and passed due to complications. Despite her own health issues and the having a seriously ill sibling, DiMenco stepped into her role as chief operating officer with grace, dignity and perseverance. In just a short amount of time, the organization’s culture became more productive, collaborative, creative, accountable and service-oriented to meet the needs of the business owners it served in the new economy. DiMenco is now cancer-free

DiMenco says, “The privilege of going to work at the WBDC fulfills my on-going desire to make a difference. The work is a labor of love. I hope everyone, at some point, reaches this stage in life – where they work not because they have to but because they want to, or they start a business just because they can.”

Another example of the best our community has to offer.

“Although my firm does a significant amount of litigation, we are more oriented toward Collaborative law and alternative dispute resolution,” says Carol Di Giacomo of Di Giacomo & Somers L.L.C, a Northfield-based law firm that specializes in family law with a focus on a Collaborative law approach. “We work on problem-solving to achieve an outcome that addresses the needs and interests of the entire family. It’s about arriving at an equitable resolution that the entire family can live with. It’s a great way to practice family law; it’s much less disruptive and toxic than litigation.”

If it sounds like a new wrinkle in the practice of family law, it is, relatively speaking. With roots that date back to the 1990s, Collaborative law first came to Illinois 11 years ago. Its goal is to avoid the uncertain outcome of court proceedings and achieve a fair resolution by engaging opposing sides in working together toward a settlement based on their respective needs and interests, without destroying the family unit. To that end, the process incorporates mental health specialists, parenting specialists and financial experts who help create dialogue and ensure a sense of harmony going forward.

That’s right — harmony. When a husband and wife part ways, they still need to work together, or at least work cooperatively, after the split. “Sometimes divorce law is like a chess game: The person with the most money and power can win. But in seeking to ‘win,’ you can lose sight of what you are there for: to equitably divide up the marital estate and to help the parties move forward in their new lives,” says Di Giacomo.

The Collaborative process can help the parties create a new relationship and family dynamic as they move forward. “Parties should keep in mind that they may be getting divorced, but they will be parents and grandparents together, for the rest of their lives,” she points out.

Di Giacomo, whose parents are of Calabrian and Sicilian lineage, has been practicing law for 31 years, and her expertise is broad. While she concentrates primarily in family law, including divorce and custody cases, her firm also handles estate planning, real estate law and bankruptcy filings. She particularly enjoys Collaborative law and she certainly excels in it.

“With the Collaborative process, it’s not about winning at all cost, but rather achieving the best results for all involved,” Di Giacomo says. “Collaboration is a transparent process, and the parties are in control of their own divorce. They do not seek court intervention and, as a result, must decide upon how and when to compromise, which is often less difficult when they can hear and fully understand their spouse’s rationale.

“You need to know your rights and options when choosing a process that fits your needs, and the Collaborative process may not work for everybody,” she notes. “But if parties can work cooperatively, it’s better for the family. It enables parties going through a difficult divorce to better understand and to maintain some sense of respect for one another.”

Di Giacomo & Somers L.L.C
191 Waukegan Road, Suite 104
Northfield, IL 60093
847-999-4498
www.digiacomo-somers.com

“We deal not only with what happens when you pass away, but what happens when you don’t,” says Ferraro, who has spent nearly four decades helping his clients prepare for all three phases of life: the maturing years, the senior years and after death.

In particular, Ferraro helps position his clients so they don’t go broke while they or their spouses are in nursing homes. “That’s what’s killing the middle class,” he insists. “Estate taxes and probate aren’t the big issue. It’s long-term care.”

Ferraro stresses that most people miss the crucial difference between Medicare and Medicaid. The names may sound the same, but they work in very different ways. The sweet spot of Ferraro’s practice is getting clients into a position where they can take advantage of all Medicaid has to offer.

“You’ve got to remember, Medicare is for acute care: hospitalization and surgery,” he says. “But the only remedy for custodial care — where there’s no surgery but you need constant supervision — is Medicaid. And it doesn’t come automatically to citizens at age 65, while Medicare does.”

So how does Ferraro put clients in a position where they’re secure and covered? “It’s like being financially eligible for a tax deduction,” he explains. “You have to plan for it, and that’s what we help you do. You also have to fill out applications, and set up specialized trusts and vehicles to qualify.”

For some, the best solution might be long-term care insurance, but that’s a path filled with pitfalls: “If every one of us went to get it, only one in 10 of us would qualify because of strict underwriting standards, pre-existing conditions, and the fact that it’s very expensive.”

And so Ferraro focuses on making sure that his clients prepare for life, which in today’s world usually means a long life in which technological advances keep people alive and in nursing homes far beyond anything they expected.

It takes patience, tenacity and skill to protect a client through every stage of this brave new world. But behind the expertise and determination is an affable man who gives abundant credit to his parents, natives of Rende, near Cosenza in Calabria, for making him the lawyer he is today. “I was born on Taylor Street and raised in Glenview,” Ferraro says. “I learned about tenacity from my dad, who was a custom tailor. And from my mother, who was an elementary school teacher, I got a lifelong love of learning.”

That in part explains why Ferraro is so dedicated to teaching his clients as they go. His website is a wellspring of books and videos on nursing home costs, veterans benefits, Alzheimer’s disease and other germane topics. He encourages anyone who has questions about elder law and estate planning to call his office for a free, 15-minute consultation.

“That’s how we start with everybody,” Ferraro says. “We try to find out right away if we can help, and identify what the issues are.”

The Law Offices of Anthony B. Ferraro
5600 N. River Road, Suite 764
Rosemont, IL 60018
847-221-0154
www.abferrarolaw.com

The former DePaul University College of Law classmates have a refreshing take on client advocacy. “Some attorneys think that the case is their case and not the client’s case. As a result, decisions are made that reflect what’s good for the firm — and not what’s good for the client,” says Fichera, who served as president of the Italian American Political Coalition for two years, and was a co-founder of the Sicilian American Cultural Association.

Fichera, whose parents hailed from Bagheria in Sicily, decided long ago to do things differently. “When you’re negotiating these cases, the client should always be right,” he says firmly. “It’s their life. Let’s say they’ve been hurt and they haven’t worked for a while. If they say to us, ‘I want $100,000 now,’ we have to listen. We’ll tell them when we know we can get $200,000 in two years. But in the end, it’s their case, not ours.”

That may explain why Fichera & Miller does so much business based on referrals and word-of-mouth. Some clients have histories with the firm that span multiple generations of the same family. On the personal injury side, the practice runs the gamut from wrongful death and medical malpractice cases to birth injuries, workplace injuries, and motor vehicle and pedestrian accidents. In addition to their main office downtown, the firm serves their west suburban clients from their office in Elgin.

And with success has come growth. Over the years, the staff has expanded to include partner Matthew A. Lasusa and associates Joseph P. Lupinacci and Jack Marshall. Like both Fichera and Miller, Marshall concentrates in personal injury and workers comp cases, and the other two attorneys bring skills to the firm that expand both its reach and expertise.

“Matt started trying personal cases with me many years ago, and he’s become a very respected litigator, whether that’s in personal injury or commercial and corporate matters,” Fichera says. LaSusa also represents individuals with personal estate, financial planning, and commercial matters. Like the principals, he’s a DePaul College of Law grad, as is his dad, legendary Chicago lawyer Samuel A. Lasusa.

Lupinacci has an M.B.A. as well as a law degree (the latter from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law). He works on commercial litigation cases for the firm. He has a history of handling complex breach of contract and warranty actions, securities litigation, insurance coverage disputes, and civil appeals, to name a few areas of practice.

Together, these litigators round out a team led by two men who are fantastic listeners with a reputation for learning the histories of their clients, responding to their needs and respecting their wishes. Dominic Fichera and Howard Miller have enjoyed extraordinarily positive feedback from clients throughout their many years in practice together, as well as an impressive record of success, and they aren’t about to tinker with that winning formula now.

“Clients judge us on how they are treated by us,” Miller says. “They don’t always know how much we’ll get in verdicts and settlements. But they do know how we’ve treated them.”

Fichera & Miller, P.C.
415 N. La Salle St., Suite 301
Chicago, IL
312-673-2222
ficheramiller.com