Christopher J. Maurer is a founding partner of Suburban Law Group, LLC with over two decades of experience in the areas of Family Law and Estate Planning. He handles cases in DuPage County, Cook County, Kane County, and other counties in the Greater Chicagoland Area. He has focused his practice in the area of family law, including divorce issues (contested and uncontested divorces, high-stakes litigation, complex financial and business divorces), paternity cases, preparation of prenuptial agreements and postnuptial agreements, custody disputes, establishing visitation or parenting schedules, child support calculation and alimony / maintenance determination, grandparent rights, relocation disputes regarding removing children from Illinois, and enforcing court orders.
Chris is also a certified Guardian ad Litem representing children in domestic relations cases and disabled adults in guardianship cases, as well as a licensed mediator, facilitating settlements between parties in cases involving minor children.
Chris also assists clients in developing estate plans (wills, trusts, powers of attorney for health care, powers of attorney for property) to ensure that their assets are protected during their lifetimes and after their deaths. Chris regularly utilizes estate planning tools to meet his clients' goals of avoiding probate, reducing or avoiding estate taxes, nominating guardians of children, and protecting assets from creditors.
Chris also represents administrators, executors, heirs and guardians in various guardianship and probate proceedings, including complex, multi-million dollar estates. In addition to being a seasoned trial court litigator, Chris has substantial appellate litigation experience, having won several cases on appeal before the Illinois Appellate Court, one of which was sent back to the trial court, resulting in a $1.7 million verdict in favor of the Appellant upon retrial.
Chris has authored, published and edited numerous articles and conducted Continuing Legal Eduation programs and seminars pertinent to other family law practitioners.
Chris is an active member of the DuPage Bar Association, a Director and past Treasurer of the DuPage Bar Foundation, and a board member and past Editor in Chief of the DuPage Brief, a scholarly legal magazine published and circulated to members of the DuPage Bar. Chris earned his Juris Doctorate from Loyola University of Chicago's College of Law in 1997, where he was an active member of the College's International Law Program and Organization. In 1994, Chris received his Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he also did work for Habitat for Humanity, the Daily Illini Newspaper, and WPGU Radio.