Michele Jochner
SCHILLER DUCANTO AND FLECK LLP
PARTNER

Throughout her career, Michele M. Jochner has led the way in advancing the ideals of mentoring and leadership throughout our legal community. Whether chairing boards and committees, penning hundreds of legal articles offering practical advice to colleagues or serving as a one-on-one mentor and role model to law students and new attorneys, Michele has “paid it forward” to help others achieve their very best.

As a partner at Schiller DuCanto and Fleck LLP, Michele handles complex, high-stakes marital dissolution matters in the Illinois courts of review. Prior to entering private practice, Michele served for more than 15 years as a Judicial Law Clerk to two Justices of the Illinois Supreme Court who were trailblazers in their own right: the late Hon. Mary Ann G. McMorrow and the late Hon. Charles E. Freeman.

Known for her legal scholarship, Michele has authored more than 200 articles, with her writings appearing in publications nationwide. She has also lectured at several dozen seminars across the state of Illinois, with a significant portion of this work focusing on instructing colleagues in effective appellate advocacy, legal writing and application of Illinois Supreme Court Rules. She has been recognized by her peers in family appellate law, ranked in the Top 100 Women Consumer Lawyers in Illinois and profiled in the 2016 Consumer Edition of Leading Lawyers magazine. In addition, Michele has earned recognition by Super Lawyers and The Best Lawyers in America, and is listed in Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Family Lawyers.” In 2015, the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois honored her with its Top Women Lawyers in Leadership Award; she was also recognized as one of 2013’s “Women Making an Impact” by Chicago Lawyer magazine for her mentoring work.

A well-known leader in her profession, Michele is the Chair of the Illinois Supreme Court’s Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Board, and just completed her two-year tenure as Chair of the DePaul University College of Law Dean’s Advisory Council after previously being honored with the DePaul University College of Law Outstanding Service to the Profession Award. Michele also currently serves as a member of the Boards of Directors of Scribes – The American Society of Legal Writers, as well as the Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR).

Michele is a past member of the Board of Governors of the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA), and has served on the ISBA Family Law Section Council, was a co-editor of the ISBA Bench & Bar newsletter, served on the Editorial Board of the Illinois Bar Journal and was an elected member of the ISBA Assembly. She is also a past-member of the Board of Managers of the Chicago Bar Association (CBA), as well as a former Chair of the CBA’s Committee on Public Affairs, and a past member of its Executive Committee of the Alliance for Women and the Editorial Board of the CBA Record. In addition, Michele served on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois (WBAI), and was an Adjunct Professor at both DePaul University College of Law and The John Marshall Law School, through which she educated and mentored the next generation of Illinois attorneys.