Gould + Ratner
What Are the Most Common Legal Mistakes First-Time Chicago Multifamily Real Estate Buyers Make (and How to Avoid Them)?
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What Are the Most Common Legal Mistakes First-Time Chicago Multifamily Real Estate Buyers Make (and How to Avoid Them)?

First-time multifamily buyers in Chicago often focus on price, neighborhood and cap rate but miss legal and compliance issues that silently add cost, delay closing or create post-closing liability.
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New USPS Postmark Procedures May Result in Late Filing Penalties
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New USPS Postmark Procedures May Result in Late Filing Penalties

For decades, taxpayers and legal professionals have relied on the "mailbox rule": if a document is dropped in a USPS collection box by the deadline, it is considered timely filed. This is no longer a safe assumption.
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2026 Construction Forecast: The Only Thing Certain is Uncertainty
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2026 Construction Forecast: The Only Thing Certain is Uncertainty

As 2026 dawns, it is natural to consider the outlook for construction in the coming year.
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Publications

News
Events
The Illinois General Assembly has passed SB 75, a bill that would require all employers in the state to provide workplace sexual harassment training to employees annually
Mark Brookstein
Partner
llinois has cleared one of the last remaining minefields for out-of-state businesses selling to Illinois residents to submit the state sales tax that they are required to collect on such sales.
Jennifer Tolsky
Partner
Chair, Tax Planning and Structuring Practice
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that a trust beneficiary’s residence in a state by itself doesn’t give the state the right to tax the trust.
From its recent inception, the Qualified Opportunity Zone program has generated a lot of interest from potential investors, but many have waited until receiving further guidance from the Internal Revenue Service about how,
Jennifer Tolsky
Partner
Chair, Tax Planning and Structuring Practice
Attention businesses operating in Illinois: If you use a person’s “biometric” data for things like timekeeping or security, you must have a written policy
Mark Brookstein
Partner
Early March has come in like a lion for employers, who are now facing potential new federal rules on overtime and classification, as well as changes to how much information they need to be reporting to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding pay rates broken down by gender and race.
David Michael
Managing Partner
Chair, Human Resources and Employment Law Practice
Litigation
Mark Brookstein
Partner
We have all heard the old axiom: A lawyer who represents themself has a fool for a client. More truth than not in that statement, probably.
Richard Reizen
Partner
Chair, Construction Practice
As we welcome 2019, the following is a recap of new laws affecting Illinois employers. Illinois Human Rights Act The Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA) nowrequires all Illinois employers to advise employees of their right to be free from harassment, discrimination, and retaliation in the workplace.
Mark Brookstein
Partner
As 2018 begins to wind down, it is the traditional time for industry experts to prognosticate on risks facing the construction industry. We have reviewedseveral such prognostications from the insurance and construction industries and combined it with our personal and anecdotal experience and offer the followingbrief list of issues which the Gould & Ratner Construction Practice believe could impact the industry in the coming year.
Richard Reizen
Partner
Chair, Construction Practice
The Opportunity Zone program was created as a provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of December 2017. The program was developed with the intent to helpencourage investment in economically distressed communities – called qualified opportunity zones (QOZs) – by allowing taxpayers to invest realizedcapital gains in qualified opportunity funds (QOFs).