Hon. Karen G. Shields (Ret.) has extensive experience in all aspects of family law matters. She has focused her practice on family law matters since 1991, first as an attorney in private practice and later as a Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County Domestic Relations Division where she was a member of the Special Supreme Court Committee on Child Custody Issues and the Illinois Judicial Conference Study Committee on Juvenile Justice. She has developed a reputation for fairness, integrity, and excellent legal ability and is considered exceptionally bright and hard working according to the Chicago Council of Lawyers evaluation.
ADR Experience and Qualifications
Judge Shields has substantial litigation, judicial, and settlement experience in all aspects of family law including:
- Custody and parenting time
- Property
- Marital vs. non-marital
- Valuations including real estate, businesses, art
- Distribution of assets and debts
- Contributions and reimbursements between marital and non-marital estates
- Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements
- Family support and maintenance
- College contribution
Representative Matters
- Custody and visitation in every sort of situation including where one or both parents have alcohol and drug problems; custody where mother moved child within the state but far enough that it impinged on father’s visitation
- Removal of child from state
- Custody and care of children with special needs
- Date of separation issue
- Grounds where one party objected to divorce for religious reasons
- Allocation of college expenses
- Attorney’s fees dispute with own client
- Child support where custodial parent does not believe non-custodial parent’s work records and testimony
- Contribution by marital estate to non-marital estate and vise versa
- Disagreement as to whether the money from a parent during the marriage was a gift or a loan and whether it was to one party or both
- Distribution of assets and debt from small estates overwhelmed with debt to very large estates with millions in assets
- Division of estate where federal criminal charges pending against one party
- Maintenance where one party was primary income for 40 years and the other party had no means of personal support and there were no retirement funds
- Neutral evaluation for divorcing parties
- Negotiation of pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements
- Quieting title on property between husband and wife and husband’s three brothers
- Stock option division
- Tax issues in divorce
- Use of expert relative to ability to work and job market
- Validity of prenuptial agreement
- Valuations of: medical practice and split of marital assets; Subchapter S manufacturing business and disagreement as to its designation as marital or non-marital property; artwork which did not sell at auction for the values that both parties believed were accurate