Rafael E. Lazaro

I have practiced employment law for over 25 years, and I work both sides of it.

I represent employees across the Chicago area in discrimination, sexual harassment and gender discrimiantion, retaliation, whistleblower, FMLA and disability cases, and I review and negotiate severance agreements for executives and senior professionals facing a departure.
I also represent employers. I defend companies and individual managers against discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wage claims, and I conduct workplace investigations involving allegations of litigated these claims from the other side, I can read a file the way a plaintiff's lawyer will read it. That means telling a company where it is genuinely exposed, and where it should not pay a dollar.

I also serve as an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association, where I hear and decide employment disputes. I have sat in the decision-maker's chair. I know what actually persuades a neutral, and I bring that back to every matter I handle.
Most of the people who call me are not looking for a fight. They are looking for someone who will tell them, honestly, whether what happened to them was unlawful and what their options are. That is where every case starts. If there is a claim worth pursuing, I pursue it. If there is not, I say so.

I handle matters in negotiation, before the EEOC and the Illinois Department of Human Rights, in arbitration, and in state and federal court.
Working both sides is deliberate. Very few employment lawyers in Chicago do it, and it makes me better at each.