About the Author

About the Author

Julie A. Tappendorf is an equity partner in the Chicago office of Ancel Glink, P.C.  She currently serves as Village Attorney to Gilberts, Lindenhurst, Wadsworth and Campton Hills and City Attorney to Park Ridge and Lake Forest. 

Julie advises her local government clients on FOIA, Open Meetings, electronic communication, ethics, and many other issues.  She regularly attends municipal board and council meetings and represents local governments in transactional and litigation matters, including defending land use decisions, negotiating and drafting contracts, drafting policies, codes and ordinances, and advising clients on economic development matters. She also represents property owners and developers in land use matters.  

Particular highlights of her recent practice include:

• Successfully defended a municipality in an action by property owners challenging the annexation of certain property, recently affirmed by the Illinois appellate court.
• Negotiated a settlement of a complex breach of contract case to enforce a development agreement involving a mixed-use downtown development.
• Assisting communities in establishing vacant property regulations, priority liens, and other tools to address the impacts from the housing crisis.
• Completed numerous comprehensive rewrites of zoning, subdivision, sign, and other development regulations.
• Advising communities on day-to-day legal issues relating to ethics, meeting procedures, and local records laws, including preparation of administrative policies relating to FOIA, social media, personnel, and zoning hearings.

Julie has published on a variety of land use and government issues, including a land use casebook, a book on development agreements, and numerous chapters and articles on architectural design, annexation and subdivisions, social media, and regulating distressed properties. She is a frequent speaker at local and national conferences on housing and the economy, sunshine laws, ethics, zoning procedures, and various land use issues.  She co-authored the book "Development by Agreement: A Toolbook for Land Developers and Local Governments," published by the ABA in 2012, and Local Governments and Social Media: Navigating the New Public Square, published by the ABA in 2013.

Julie is an Adjunct Professor at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, and has taught the State and Local Government Law class.  She is a faculty member of the ALI-ABA Land Use Institute.  She served on the editorial board of the University of Hawai'i Law Review while at the University of Hawaii, William S. Richardson School of Law.   

Julie is a member of the American Bar Association (Chair of the Land Use Committee), the American Planning Association (Amicus Committee and Planning and Law Division), and Commercial Real Estate Executive Women of Chicago (CREW).  She is admitted to practice in the Illinois state courts, Northern District of Illinois, and the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
 

Prior to her law career, Julie served for eight years (active and reserves) in the United States Army, Military Intelligence Branch, as a Korean cryptologic-linguist.

Visit Ancel Glink's website at http://ancelglink.com/ and Twitter page @MunicipalMinute.

Blog comments do not reflect the views or opinions of the Author or Ancel Glink.