Marc Andrew Bangser

BACKGROUND

Prior to joining Conniff & Keleher, LLC (formerly Conniff Law Offices) as a partner in March 2022, Marc A. Bangser was an equity partner at two top-rated family law firms in Chicago.  Marc specializes in all areas of divorce and family law in Cook, DuPage, Lake, Kane, McHenry and Will Counties and negotiating and litigating a wide variety of pre-decree divorces, post-decree modifications, child allocation and parentage matters, child support, orders of protection, domestic violence, DCFS and grandparent’s rights cases.  In addition, Marc has extensive experience negotiating and litigating complex marital estates and navigating the often-complicated waters of high-net worth divorces, financial obligations and asset allocation. 

Prior to first entering the field of family law in 2013, Marc was an Assistant State’s Attorney in Lake County for over seven years and worked as a government attorney in New York. In addition to extensive work with parentage issues in the Juvenile Division, Marc prosecuted countless numbers of misdemeanors and felonies during his time as an Assistant State’s Attorney, ranging from traffic violations and DUI arrests to homicides. In addition, from July 2021 to March 2022, Marc was an Assistant State's Attorney in Kane County working general felonies, Major Crimes and was also the Supervisor of the Special Victims Unit during his time in the Kane County State's Attorney's Office.

With his vast experience of thousands of combined hearings, bench trials and jury trials during his time as a family law attorney and prosecutor, Marc has earned the highest of accolades regarding his tenacity and prowess in the courtroom. He is also known for his top-notch negotiation skills, high-level writing ability and maintaining excellent relationships with clients, the judiciary and court personnel in numerous courthouses throughout the Chicagoland area.

The primary reason Marc left the world of criminal prosecution was to utilize his advocacy skills and dedication in order to help children. And as a parent of two young children himself, Marc knows first-hand that all parents will do anything to protect and advocate on behalf of their kids – who often are the most affected individuals in divorce or parentage cases. To that end, besides making the children’s safety and best interests his top priority in any divorce or parentage matter, Marc is a certified Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) and Child Representative in Cook, DuPage, Lake and Will Counties. Marc has been often appointed by the Court, in his capacity as a GAL and counted on by numerous judges to investigate and make recommendations concerning the best interests of children of a variety of ages and circumstances. Marc embraces the opportunity to advocate for children on behalf of a client, as well as his role as a GAL, knowing that children need a strong, compassionate and decisive voice to represent their best interests in court.

In addition, Marc was appointed to serve as the Chair of the Child Law Section Council for the Illinois State Bar Association for the 2019-2020 year. Among the many programs completed by Child Law during Marc's successful tenure as Chair was a 10-plus hour Continuing Legal Education program for Domestic Relations/Family Law Guardian Ad Litem’s and Child Representatives, held on October 16-17, 2019 in Springfield – a training that the Section Council got certified as the very first statewide-accepted GAL training of its kind.

LEADERSHIP
Since 2014 and due to his exemplary work and reputation in the legal community, in every year that he has been practicing family law, Marc has been named as an Illinois Super Lawyers “Rising Star”, a designation reserved for the Top 2.5% of lawyers in the state under the age of 40, and an honor reserved for those lawyers who “exhibit excellence in practice.” Furthermore, Marc has been named as an Illinois Leading Lawyers “Emerging Lawyer”, a designation reserved for the top two percent of lawyers in the state under the age of 40 and “have proven themselves professional, ethical and experienced at an early point in their legal career.” Moreover, he has been selected as one of the Top 100 Matrimonial & Family Lawyers by National Advocates, named to the Marquis and Global Directory “Who’s Who” Top Attorney List and various other accolades reflecting his high character and skill in the divorce and family law community.

EDUCATION
Marc graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and was awarded a Certificate for his studies in Criminal Justice. He then received his Juris Doctor from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, where he was selected for multiple competitive trial advocacy teams and was the recipient of five Continuing Student Scholarships, awarded to students who “make a significant contribution to the excellence of John Marshall Law School.” In addition, he was named the school’s first-ever Student Ambassador Coordinator and was recognized by the school for his commitment to acclimating new students and for his recruiting efforts to bring quality students to John Marshall.

PUBLICATIONS AND COMMUNITY SERVICE WORK
An author in various legal publications, Marc recently served as the editor for the Child Law Section Council newsletter and edited and helped finalize numerous articles and submissions for the 2018-2019 calendar year. In addition, he was recently published in the newsletter including an in-depth perspective on the challenges that GAL’s face in family law on a case-by-case basis. Among his many contributions to Lake County during his time as a prosecutor was as a features writer for Seeking Justice, the State’s Attorney’s Office’s newsletter. While authoring several pieces on members of the legal community, Marc was published multiple times in the Lake County Bar Association’s newsletter, The Docket.

He has volunteered his time with several different law-oriented ventures, including recently acting as a guest lecturer and instructor at John Marshall with the Family Law and Domestic Violence Clinic – working with students on contested hearing simulations such as petitions for supervised parenting time with serious endangerment allegations and plenary orders of protections. He has also been heavily involved in the coaching and judging of numerous law school, college and high school trial advocacy competitions and acting as a guest lecturer at Warren Township High School in Gurnee, IL, instructing freshmen and sophomores in a comprehensive introduction to law class. Marc has also been a member of the DuPage County Bar Association’s committee, “Lawyers Lend a Hand”, where he has volunteered his time with judges and other lawyers to work in food banks and community centers throughout DuPage County, as well as contributing his time to “Law Day” by supervising middle school students as they participated in a tour of the courthouse and mock trials in Lake and DuPage Counties.

FAMILY
Marc is the extremely proud dad of two adorable children, Jackson and Camilla [Mimi].