Brian Forde joined the law firm O'Keefe Lyons & Hynes as an Associate in April of 2000 after having served as an Assistant State's Attorney in the Office of the Cook County State's Attorney under the administration of Richard A. Devine. His primary practice is the representation and counseling of clients with respect to real estate taxation of commercial and industrial properties, including matters of property tax incentives and abatements as well as real estate tax planning in the effective conduct of business operations. He has also handled various complex legal matters on behalf of premier residential condominiums, large office buildings, multi-family residential apartment buildings, and long term care facilities. While in the State's Attorney's Office he was assigned to the Civil Actions Bureau where his practice focused on real estate taxation, Federal Bankruptcy matters and general litigation. He was also responsible for cases involving §1983 civil rights claims, federal subpoena issues, Cook County Board of Election cases and drug foreclosures involving the County of Cook. Since joining O'Keefe he has co-authored articles for the Institute for Professionals in Taxation as well as for the National Business Institute. Prior to joining the State's Attorney's Office as an Assistant, he served as a law clerk in the Labor Division of the Office where he was assigned to assist in defending the Cook County Sheriff and Cook County Hospital in labor disputes. From January 1994 until December of 1997 Mr. Forde also worked as a law clerk at O'Keefe Ashenden Lyons & Ward, in all of the firm's departments.


Professional Associations

Mr. Forde is a member of the American Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association, Chicago Bar Association, Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Bar Association, the International Association of Assessing Officers, the Institute for Professionals in Taxation, and the Prosecutors Bar Association. He was admitted to practice before the Illinois Bar and the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois in 1997 and in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 2000. In August of 2003 he was selected to serve on the DePaul University College of Law Alumni Board and is the chairman if its alumni networks subcommittee.


Education

Mr. Forde received his Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law in 1997 after receiving his Bachelor of Science degree as a Political Science Scholar from Northern Illinois University in 1993.