Michael C. Dorf

Michael Dorf Vcard

Direct Dial: (312) 781-2806
E-mail: mdorf@adlmb.com

EXPERIENCE

Michael Dorf has an extensive, broad based general commercial practice, with emphasis on banking transactions, mergers and acquisitions, shareholder agreements and boardroom strategy, sales and leases of commercial property, contract drafting and negotiation, and all general aspects of corporate (both for profit and not for profit) and partnership law. In addition, his practice includes election law, government relations and advocacy at the federal, state and local levels.

Michael is also a specialist in arts law and is a nationally recognized authority on political strategy and cultural planning at the national and local levels. He served for six years as Special Counsel to United States Representative Sidney R. Yates (D. Ill.), where he helped to develop national policies on arts funding. At the request of Mayor Harold Washington, Michael directed the process which created Chicago's first Cultural Plan. His writings on public funding for the arts have appeared in many publications including The Brookings Review and The Washington Post, among others.

Mr. Dorf is Adjunct Full Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he developed and teaches courses in Law, Politics, and the Arts and Street Law for the Artist. He has also guest taught at the Cultural Policy Center of the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy Studies. He has represented numerous candidates for local, state, and federal office, including United States Senator Barack Obama (D. IL), and Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, in election law and campaign finance compliance matters.

RATINGS

• Named a Super Lawyer 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
  
  

PRACTICE AREAS

• General Corporate
• Commercial Real Estate
• Commercial Transactions
• Election Law and Litigation
• Legislative and Government Relations
• Not for Profit and Charitable Organizations
• Arts Law

BAR ADMISSIONS

Illinois, 1976
District of Columbia, 1980

COURT ADMISSIONS

• UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURTS
• Northern District of Illinois
  
  

MEMBERSHIPS AND AFFILIATIONS

• Chicago Bar Association - Vice Chair, Election Law Committee
• Lawyers for the Creative Arts - Honors Council
• Illinois Humanities Council - Council Member
• Illinois Arts Alliance - Board Member
  
  

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

• 1996 - Present  Adducci, Dorf, Lehner, Mitchell & Blankenship, P.C.
• 1988 - 1996     Schuyler, Roche & Zwirner
• 1990                 President's Independent Commission on the National Endowment
  for the Arts, Legal Affairs Consultant.
• 1984 - 1987     City of Chicago, Director of the Chicago Cultural Plan
• 1978 - l984      Special Counsel to the Hon. Sidney R. Yates, (D.IL), U.S. House of Representatives
• 1976 - 1977     Law Clerk to the Honorable Hubert L. Will,United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

EDUCATION

Columbia University School of Law, J.D., 1976

• Executive Editor: Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems.
• Staff Assistant:Silverman Report on Attorney Disciplinary Procedures, Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

University of Chicago, B.A., 1973

• Recipient, Howell Murray Award for Outstanding Undergraduates