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Caffarelli & Siegel
Ltd.
Two Prudential Plaza
180 North Stetson, Suite 3150
Chicago, Illinois 60601
Telephone:(312) 540-1230
Facsimile:(312) 540-1231
CLICK HERE to contact us |
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Alejandro Caffarelli is one of the founding shareholders of
Caffarelli & Siegel Ltd., a boutique employment law firm located in
downtown Chicago. With over ten years of experience, he has
achieved success on behalf of his clients for a range of claims,
including discrimination, retaliation, wages, medical leave,
employment contracts, and class actions. A native of Argentina, he
is fluent in Spanish and has earned a strong reputation for
vigorously defending the rights of Hispanic employees. His firm has
negotiated numerous six-figure settlements, including a $920,000.00
settlement in the case of Sanchez et al. v. Stampede Meat, Inc. (N.D.Ill. No. 02C5452).
What
distinguishes Mr. Caffarelli from many of his peers in the
plaintiffs’ bar is that he also handles high level management-side
work. He is a lawyer’s lawyer who, along with the co-founder Marc
Siegel, takes pride in representing a number of law firms in their
own employment disputes. Prior to founding Caffarelli & Siegel Ltd.
in 2001, he worked at a mid-size management-side only firm, where,
among other things, he helped draft the successful appellate brief
in support of enforcing a confidentiality agreement on behalf of
Oprah Winfrey’s production company, Harpo, Inc. The appellate
court’s decision is now viewed as one of the seminal resources for
defining the proper parameters of employee confidentiality
agreements. Coady v. Harpo, Inc., 719 N.E.2d. 244 (Ill. Ct.
App. 1999). In 2008, the City of Chicago awarded Mr. Caffarelli the
position of Special Assistants Corporation Counsel and appointed him
to defend the City in two class action cases
brought against the City with combined total potential
damages in the millions of dollars.
Although he has successfully served as lead counsel in both
jury and bench trials, Mr. Caffarelli takes particular pride
in the writing and analytical abilities of his firm's
litigation practice. He has successfully defeated the
vast majority of his opponents' motions for summary judgment
– most of them brought
by large national firms. He has prevailed on many issues of
first impression in federal court, such as establishing that a
police chief is subject to individual liability under the Family and
Medical Leave Act, and that an employees’ sleeping on the job does
not alone constitute a breach of fiduciary duty in Illinois. See Rasic v. City of Northlake (N.D.Ill. No. 08C0104) and Beltran v. Brentwood North Healthcare Center, LLC, (N.D.Ill. No.
05C2558) respectively.
In
recognition of his achievements, Mr. Caffarelli has been awarded an
“AV” rating by LexisNexis’ Martindale-Hubbell, one of the oldest and
most respected peer-review based rating services for attorneys.
According to Martindale-Hubbell, the attainment of an “AV” rating is
“a testament to the fact that a lawyer's peers rank him or her at
the highest level of professional excellence.” As of 2008, Mr.
Caffarelli was rated “superb,” a perfect 10 out of 10 on a numerical
scale, by Avvo. Avvo is an online attorney rating service with an
algorithm based upon an objective mathematical model.
Mr.
Caffarelli is frequently invited to speak before lawyers’ groups.
Recent engagements include:
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DePaul University College of Law ICE
Enforcement Conference: Employment Panel, 2009. |
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American Immigration Lawyers' Association Regional Conference: Employment
Enforcement Alert, 2009. |
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Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation, YLS Lunch Seminar: The Interplay Between Employment Law and Immigration Law, 2008. |
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The Labor Employment Relations Association, Lunch Seminar: The
American with Disabilities Act Amendments of 2008, 2008. |
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American Immigration Lawyers’ Association, Regional
Conference: Employment Enforcement Alert, 2007. |
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Chicago Bar Association, CLE: Common Immigration Issues in
Employment Law, 2006. |
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Chicago Bar Association, CLE: The Undocumented in America,
2006. |
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Mr.
Caffarelli currently serves on the Board of Directors for the
Illinois chapter of the National Employment Lawyers’ Association and
previously served on the Board of Directors for the Hispanic
Lawyers' Association of Illinois. For the past several years, Mr.
Caffarelli has provided pro bono services on behalf of indigent
workers through the Workers’ Center at the Chicago Interfaith
Committee on Worker Issues. In 2001, he volunteered to provide
legal assistance for the City of Chicago’s immigration workshops,
sponsored by Mayor Richard M. Daley, and he subsequently graduated
from the United Neighborhood Organization’s Metropolitan Leadership
Institute (“MLI”), a workshop for Hispanic professionals.
Mr.
Caffarelli received a B.A. from the University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor, with a double major of History and Spanish Literature, and
was awarded a Juris Doctor from the University of Minnesota Law
School, where he served as Note & Comment Editor of the Minnesota
Law Review. During that time, he authored an article on criminal
asset forfeitures, which subsequently was accepted for publication.
In 1995, he served as an intern for the Honorable Judge Michael
Davis of the United States District Court for the District of
Minnesota.
Since
graduation, Mr. Caffarelli has been admitted to practice law before
the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the United States District
Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the Illinois Supreme
Court, and the trial bar of the Northern District of Illinois. In
2005, Mr. Caffarelli honed his trial skills by participating in the
National Institute for Trial Advocacy's Midwest Regional Workshop in
St. Paul, Minnesota.
Mr.
Caffarelli currently lives in the City of Chicago with his wife
Elise and children Isabella and Luca. When not at work, he enjoys playing
squash, cycling, gardening, traveling, and spending time with his
family. |
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