Attorney Profiles

Kathryn Ciesla has been practicing law since 1997.  She has a broad depth of experience in litigation, corporate law, employment practices, liquor licensing, and estate planning and administration.

Kathryn's corporate client base includes a number of bars, clubs, restaurants, caterers and not-for-profits, to which she provides advice and counsel regarding the legal issues and challenges those businesses face in the areas of liquor law and licensing.  Her work in this area includes liquor licensing, change of owners/officers, violation defense, policy development, employee relations and other matters related to compliance with local and state laws and regulations.

In addition to her work at Ciesla & Ciesla, P.C., Kathryn was elected in 2009 to the Village Board of Northbrook, and currently serves as a Trustee where she chairs the Contracts/Franchises Committee and is a member of the Administration/Finance and Housing/Human Services Committees. 

Immediately prior to joining the firm, Kathryn served as General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer for a regionally accredited college with campuses in Chicago and the surrounding metropolitan area.  While in-house,' Kathryn focused her practice on both corporate and educational issues, including corporate governance, employment law, compliance, Title IV, contracts, transactions and real estate.

Before going in-house,' Kathryn worked as an attorney at Schiller, DuCanto and Fleck, the largest law firm in the nation focusing exclusively on matrimonial law.  Kathryn handled cases for clients with multi-million dollar holdings.  Work on these cases required sophisticated financial expertise in matters of business valuation, personal tax consequences, discovery of assets, property settlement, support and trust and estate planning.

Kathryn started her career at a general practice firm in Evanston, where she focused on estate administration, real estate and matrimonial law.

Kathryn currently lives in Northbrook with her husband and two children.