IN THIS ISSUE

  • Welcome to Robbins DiMonte, Ltd. (RD)

  • Meet the CEO of RD

  • Meet the President of RD

  • Change in Illinois Employment Law: New Restrictions Around Non-Competition and Non-Solicitation Covenants

  • "Senior Estate Planning"- Modifying Your Estate Plan Before Seeking Medicaid for Long Term Care

  • New Laws Coming into Effect for the New Year

  • Illinois Condominium Law Alert: New Implied Cause of Action a Warning to Condominium Owners, Directors, and Property Managers
Welcome to Robbins DiMonte, Ltd.
Dear Clients, Partners and Friends:
 
Happy New Year!
 
Robbins, Salomon & Patt, Ltd. (RSP) and DiMonte & Lizak, LLC (D&L) have the great pleasure of announcing the merger of their Chicago-based law practices to form Robbins DiMonte, Ltd. (RD) effective January 3, 2022. The new firm will be a joining of two extraordinary firms with practice strengths that are highly complementary and will enable us to provide a new and broader set of legal services to you. With the combination, RD has become one of Chicagoland’s largest boutique law firms expanding the firms’ collective capabilities in core practice areas including business and real estate, finance, litigation, and trusts and estates.

RD will be led by CEO Andrew M. Sachs, former RSP CEO, and President Riccardo A. DiMonte, former Managing Partner at D&L. The combined firm has 60 lawyers, with 40 staff and paralegals located across two offices in downtown Chicago and Park Ridge, Illinois. RD’s new website domain name and email address will be robbinsdimonte.com.

RSP and D&L have been in existence for over 50 years with deep roots in Illinois and throughout the Midwest enjoying long-time client relationships. We have a collaborative culture that seeks to effectively and creatively solve client needs to achieve positive client outcomes. We recognized that by joining forces with a similarly situated firm, we are leveraging each other’s specialties and consolidating our resources.

With our full array of practice offerings, the firm will become a full-service destination of choice for individuals, investors, businesses, and financial institutions. Robbins DiMonte is positioned for long-term success and will forge ahead as a new firm grounded in our shared core beliefs: strategic collaboration, transparency, innovative solutions, cost consciousness, a personal touch, and community engagement.

We hope you will join us in celebrating this major milestone as it provides a tremendously exciting opportunity for you and ourselves. In the new year and beyond, Robbins DiMonte looks forward to continuing to bring you the same focus, collaboration, and high-quality service that you have come to know. To view RD's recent press release, click here and for more information about the Firm, visit robbinsdimonte.com.

Sincerely,
Andrew M. Sachs
Chief Executive Officer 
Riccardo A. DiMonte
President

Meet the CEO of RD
Andrew ("Andy") M. Sachs
Telephone: 312.456.0197
I am the current CEO of Robbins DiMonte, Ltd. Prior to the law firms Robbins, Salomon & Patt, Ltd. (RSP) and DiMonte & Lizak, LLC (D&L) recent merger of their Chicago-based law practices, I had a more than 30-year legal career at RSP. I started at RSP as a law clerk in 1986 and upon graduating law school was offered an associate position. Throughout the years, I worked my way up to become a member of the RSP’s Management Committee in 2003, Chief Operating Officer in 2010, and finally Chief Executive Officer in 2020. 
 
My legal practice concentrates in the areas of asset-based lending and commercial finance. I have represented banks, financial institutions, and private lenders in connection with asset-based loans, real estate loans, restructurings, and loan workouts. In addition, I have provided counsel for real estate developers in a broad range of acquisitions, dispositions, leases, development, and other real estate related projects. 
Meet the President of RD
By Riccardo ("Ric")A. DiMonte
Telephone: 847.698.9600, Ext. 218

I have been Managing Partner of DiMonte & Lizak, LLC from 2011 to 2021. My journey as an entrepreneur and leader started in my early teens. In 1974, well before practicing law, my brothers and I started a landscaping business in Barrington, Illinois. Although I left the landscaping world when I went to college, my brother still runs the business today. In between semesters in college, I tried my hand running a logging business in the north woods. The experience of managing labor, chainsaws, and tractors in the woods (and breaking even) ultimately convinced me to go to law school. 

I got my start in 1983 when I worked as a law clerk during law school. I also worked as a self-employed collection agent for court reporters, which brought me into almost every law firm in Chicago. Despite having opportunities to work at larger firms, I found myself interested in how smaller firms offered more opportunities to gain hands-on client and trial court experience.  
Articles
Change in Illinois Employment Law: New Restrictions Around
Non-Competition and
Non-Solicitation Covenants
By Ariel B. Cutts
Telephone: 312.456.0290
Illinois is following the national trend to place limitations on employers’ use of non-competes and non-solicit covenants. Some states have banned them altogether or prohibited them for certain professions. In 2016, Illinois took the first step by enacting the Illinois Freedom to Work Act (IFWA) which prohibited employers from entering into non-competition covenants with “low-wage” employees ($13.00 an hour or the applicable minimum wage). Illinois amended the IFWA effective January 1, 2022 to further restrict the use of non-competition and non-solicit covenants.
"Senior Estate Planning"- Modifying Your Estate Plan Before Seeking Medicaid for Long Term Care
By Anthony B. Ferraro
Telephone: 847.698.9600, Ext. 286
Because most people’s estate plans plan for death. Most attorneys will draft these plans well and accomplish the goals of asset transferring upon death. However, when you’re on the elder care journey and death is not imminent but, instead, you face the devastating costs of long-term care, the “traditional estate planning” documents that may serve you well at death may not be adequate (and thus need to be modified) when a healthy spouse may unexpectedly die before their spouse who may be ill and residing in a nursing facility.
New Laws Coming into Effect for the New Year
By Parker E. Lawton
Telephone: 312.456.0283
A brand new year is upon us which means a host of new laws go into effect which may impact you or your family’s rights, duties, and business interests. We would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of these legal changes for your knowledge and enjoyment.

The federal No Surprises Act became effective New Year’s day and is designed to provide protections for patients from surprise medical bills. The new law requires insurance companies to cover certain out-of-network expenses that patients may incur as a result of emergency medical care as well as scheduled treatments from out-of-network doctors and hospitals. The law will impact approximately 10 million medical bills per year.
Illinois Condominium Law Alert: New Implied Cause of Action a Warning to Condominium Owners, Directors, and Property Managers
By Anastas Shkurti
Telephone: 847.698.9600, Ext. 290
Every condominium owner, director and property manager will be impacted by a recent Appellate Court decision in the case of Channon v. Westward Management, Inc. It gave every condominium seller the right to sue the property manager, as agent of a condominium association or board of directors, based on allegations that the property manager charged excessive fees for the production of information required to be disclosed to a prospective buyer.
 
This case arose out of a very common fact pattern. Plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit against the property management agent. Plaintiffs alleged that, when they sold their unit in 2016, the agent charged excessive and unreasonable fees totaling $245 to provide them with the documents and other information they were required to provide to the buyers of their unit.
ACHIEVEMENTS OF NOTE
Vincent T. Borst
 Telephone: 312.456.0182

Vincent T. Borst was the author of "Credit Scoring for Commercial UAS - Meeting the Opportunities and Challenges" published December 2 by Monitordaily, a publication for professionals in the equipment finance and leasing community.
Anthony B. Ferraro
 Telephone: 847.698.9600, Ext.286

Anthony B. Ferraro has been recognized as a 2022 Illinois Super Lawyer and Leading Lawyer honoree in the practice area of Elder Law. Both honors have a designation limited to the top 5% of Illinois attorneys in the related practice. Since 2017, he has been recognized every year as an Illinois Super Lawyer. Additionally, Anthony was a recent speaker for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital presenting on the topics “Crisis Estate Planning for Seniors Concerned with Long-Term Care and Selected 2021 Illinois Legislative Updates for Health and Aging Matters." 
Andrés J. Gallegos
Jennifer M. Sender
 Telephone: 312.456.0381
Telephone: 312.456.0373

Andrés J. Gallegos and Jennifer M. Sender virtually presented to employees of the British Embassy and British Consulates in the United States on Disability Culture, Etiquette and Law in conjunction with the United Kingdom's Disability History Month.
R. Kymn Harp
 Telephone: 312.456.0378

R. Kymn Harp was the keynote speaker and a panelist for the Illinois RE Journal’s 2021 Chicagoland Repositioning Summit held on November 16. Kymn discussed the topic “State of the Market” addressing repositioning in the commercial real estate marketplace.
Paul S. Motin
 Telephone: 847.698.9600, Ext. 250

Paul S. Motin has been recognized as a 2022 Illinois Super Lawyers honoree in the practice area of estate planning and probate. The honor is reserved for lawyers who have exhibited excellence in the practice. Only 5% of attorneys in Illinois receive this distinction. Paul also was a recipient of the honor in 2020 and 2021.
Patrick D. Owens
 Telephone: 847.698.9600, Ext. 216

Patrick D. Owens has been recognized as a 2022 Illinois Super Lawyers honoree in the practice area of estate planning and probate.
Tina M. Paries
 Telephone: 312.456.0384

Tina M. Paries has been selected to the 2022 Illinois Super Lawyers in the practice area of Construction Law. She also was honored as a Super Lawyer in 2020 and 2021.
David P. Resnick
 Telephone: 312.456.0376

David P. Resnick presented “Mortal Kombat: Surviving as a Leasing Attorney” at the ICSC+U.S. LAW conference in San Francisco on November 4.
Julia Jensen Smolka
 Telephone: 847.698.9600, Ext. 231

Julia Jensen Smolka is scheduled to present to the Illinois State Bar Association on the topic “The Profitable Law Office: Using Your Business Sense” on January 28. She also was a presenter for the Association's seminar on “Catch Them if You Can: Developments in Debt Collection” for November 2021. The event featured advanced debt collection training for attorneys including the topics such as confessions of judgment, revival of Judgments, registration of foreign judgment and pre-judgment attachments. 

Additionally, Julie participated in collecting donations in connection with the Advocates Attorney Group at Copernicus Center on December 18. The donations were given to the Maryville Crisis Nursery, a program that provides free short-term care for parents in distress and experiencing a crisis. The Crisis Nursery protects their children, birth to age six, from abuse, neglect or trauma.
Oana L. Militaru 
 Telephone:847.698.9600, Ext. 279

Oana L. Militaru was the program coordinator and one of the virtual panel speakers and moderators for the 3-part series on “Illinois Electronic Wills Act Series” hosted by the Illinois State Bar Association on September 17, September 24, and October 19, 2021. 

About Us
For more information, visit us online at www.robbinsdimonte.com.
RSP CHICAGO
180 North LaSalle Street, Suite 3300
Chicago, Illinois 60601
Telephone: 312.782.9000
Fax: 312.782.6690
RSP PARK RIDGE
216 West Higgins Road
Park Ridge, Illinois 60068
Telephone: 847.698.9600
Fax: 847.698.9623/9624
Publication of this legal newsletter by Robbins DiMonte, Ltd. is not intended as a solicitation of legal representation, but rather educational purposes only as well as to give you general information and a general understanding of the law. It is written entirely by members of the firm. We welcome any comments or questions about topics covered in this or any issue. This newsletter is not intended as a replacement for individual legal advice. The contents of this publication may be quoted or reproduced if credit is properly given to the source.