Illinois has one of the most sophisticated and comprehensive employment law markets in the Midwest, anchored by Chicago’s status as a global financial center, major corporate headquarters city, and the third-largest metropolitan economy in the United States. The Illinois employment law framework provides workers with protections that in several important respects exceed federal law. The Illinois Human Rights Act — IHRA — administered by the Illinois Department of Human Rights — IDHR — prohibits a broader range of discriminatory conduct than federal Title VII and covers smaller employers, providing state-level anti-discrimination protections that experienced Illinois employment attorneys leverage alongside federal law to maximize their clients’ available remedies. The Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act, the Illinois Minimum Wage Law, the Illinois Equal Pay Act, and the Illinois One Day Rest in Seven Act collectively create a comprehensive state wage and hour framework that supplements federal FLSA protections.
Chicago dominates Illinois’s employment law market, but Springfield, Rockford, Peoria, and other Illinois cities also generate significant employment law activity. The Northern District of Illinois — Eastern Division in Chicago — handles the vast majority of significant Illinois federal employment cases and is one of the most sophisticated federal districts in the country, with a judiciary that includes judges nationally recognized for their employment law expertise.
1. Linda Friedman — Stowell and Friedman Ltd.
- Address: 303 W Madison St Ste 2600, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
- Phone: +13124310888
Linda Friedman is one of the most nationally recognized and accomplished employment discrimination class action attorneys in the United States, with a practice at Stowell and Friedman that has achieved some of the largest employment discrimination settlements in American legal history. Friedman has been recognized by Super Lawyers Illinois in employment law for many consecutive years, has been included in Best Lawyers in America, and has received national recognition from publications including The National Law Journal for her groundbreaking class action discrimination work against major American corporations.
Friedman’s class action practice has targeted systematic gender discrimination and racial discrimination at some of the most powerful financial services institutions, corporations, and employers in the country — achieving results that have both compensated thousands of affected workers and produced institutional changes that have improved workplace conditions for employees beyond just the named plaintiffs in her cases. Her cases against major Wall Street firms and Chicago-based corporations have attracted national media attention and have helped shape the legal landscape for employment discrimination class actions across the country.
Her firm Stowell and Friedman’s reputation as one of the premier employment discrimination class action practices in the United States reflects the extraordinary quality and impact of the work that Friedman and her colleagues consistently produce — and the firm’s record of significant class action results against the most powerful defendants in American corporate life demonstrates the combination of legal sophistication, strategic judgment, and institutional commitment that defines truly exceptional employment law advocacy.
2. Mary Stowell — Stowell and Friedman Ltd.
- Address: 303 W Madison St Ste 2600, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
- Phone: +13124310888
Mary Stowell is a founding partner of Stowell and Friedman whose career has paralleled Linda Friedman’s in producing landmark employment discrimination class action results for workers across the country. Stowell has been recognized by Super Lawyers Illinois and Best Lawyers in America — reflecting the sustained peer recognition that comes from decades of consistently excellent, high-impact employment discrimination class action work.
Stowell’s practice focuses on the same systematic discrimination class action approach that defines Stowell and Friedman’s national reputation — pursuing large-scale cases against major employers that produce both significant financial recoveries for affected workers and meaningful institutional changes in discriminatory workplace practices. Her involvement in landmark class action cases that have shaped the national landscape for employment discrimination law reflects the highest level of contribution to worker advocacy that any employment lawyer can make.
Her firm’s combined expertise — drawing on decades of parallel class action experience from both Stowell and Friedman — creates the deepest possible institutional knowledge of employment discrimination class action practice, making Stowell and Friedman one of the most formidable plaintiff-side employment practices in the country for workers facing systematic discrimination at major employers.
3. Christopher Williams — The Law Office of Christopher J. Williams
- Address: 139 E Washington St, East Peoria, IL 61611, United States
- Phone: +13096943196
Christopher Williams is one of Chicago’s most respected plaintiff-side wage and hour and employment attorneys, with a practice that has represented Illinois workers in FLSA collective actions, Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act class actions, and employment discrimination cases throughout the Northern District of Illinois and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Williams has been recognized by Super Lawyers Illinois in employment law and has built a practice focused on making quality wage theft litigation accessible to Illinois workers across economic backgrounds.
Williams’s particular expertise in workplace retaliation cases — representing workers who have been fired, demoted, or subjected to other adverse employment actions for asserting their workplace rights — reflects specialized knowledge of one of the most practically important areas of employment law for Illinois workers who fear that asserting their legal rights will cost them their jobs. His deep understanding of the anti-retaliation provisions across multiple federal and state employment statutes provides clients with comprehensive protection against the retaliatory employer conduct that frequently follows workers’ exercise of their legal rights.
His experience before the Illinois Department of Human Rights and in the Northern District of Illinois reflects comprehensive procedural knowledge of both the state administrative and federal court phases of Illinois employment dispute resolution.
4. Matthew Billips — Billips and Associates
- Address: 120 W Madison St # 1100, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
- Phone: +13122361437
Matthew Billips is a Chicago plaintiff-side employment attorney whose practice focuses on representing workers in race discrimination, national origin discrimination, and civil rights cases throughout Illinois. Billips has built a practice rooted in genuine personal commitment to advancing racial justice in the Illinois workplace — providing fearless, dedicated advocacy for workers who have experienced racial discrimination in Chicago’s corporate, financial services, and technology sectors.
His practice’s particular depth in race discrimination cases under both Title VII and 42 U.S.C. Section 1981 — the federal Civil War-era civil rights statute that provides an independent basis for race discrimination claims with different procedural characteristics than Title VII — reflects specialized expertise that maximizes the available legal options for Illinois workers experiencing racial discrimination.
His experience in the Northern District of Illinois — one of the most sophisticated federal districts in the country for employment law — reflects the procedural knowledge and judicial familiarity that effective Chicago employment representation demands, and his commitment to pursuing race discrimination cases against the most powerful Chicago employers reflects the professional courage that defines the best plaintiff-side employment advocates.
5. Carlos Arévalo — Arévalo Law Offices
- Address: 4100 Hollywood Blvd Suite 201, Hollywood, FL 33021, United States
- Phone: +19543672327
Carlos Arévalo is a Chicago employment attorney whose practice focuses on representing Latino and immigrant workers in discrimination, wage theft, retaliation, and civil rights cases throughout the Chicago metropolitan area and Illinois. Arévalo has built a practice specifically designed to serve Chicago’s enormous Spanish-speaking workforce — providing bilingual employment law services to workers who might otherwise struggle to access quality legal representation due to language barriers.
His practice’s particular focus on national origin discrimination, language discrimination, and the specific workplace legal challenges facing immigrant workers — including cases involving immigration status retaliation, workplace harassment targeting Latino workers, and systematic wage theft in industries where immigrant workers are concentrated — reflects both specialized legal expertise and genuine cultural competence that distinguishes his practice from attorneys without specific experience serving Chicago’s diverse Hispanic and Latino communities.
His experience before the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the EEOC, and in the Northern District of Illinois — combined with his bilingual service capability — provides Chicago’s Spanish-speaking workforce with access to comprehensive employment law representation that fully leverages the federal and state protections available to all Illinois workers regardless of national origin or immigration status.
