Webinar

Landlord Tenant Issues in the Time of COVID-19

with

Alderman Leslie Hairston

Adrian Zeno

Michael Zink

Moderated by 

Erica Crohn Minchella

MCLE approved for 1-hour credit

Registration is free for IRELA Members

Non-Members* ~ $50

Program description to follow. 

Moderator

Erica Crohn Minchella
President, Minchella & Associates, Ltd.

Erica is a graduate of Loyola University School of Law and has practiced law for more than 38 years. Her field of expertise includes the spectrum of conventional and distressed real property issues for both residential and commercial properties, foreclosure defense, short sale transactions, sales out of decedent’s estates and personal and land trusts, evictions, partition suits, failure to properly disclose suits and Quiet Title Actions.

Erica has been named a Leading Lawyer by the Leading Lawyers Network since 2013 and in 2019 was named one of the top ten residential real estate lawyers in Illinois.  She has also been named a Super Lawyer for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 and has an AV Rating from Martindale Hubble from both colleagues and the judiciary. Erica is actively involved in her community and profession serving as president of the Association of Foreclosure Defense Attorneys (Founder and President), and ISBA Real Estate Section Council (past chair) and Assembly and the Board of Directors of IRELA. She regularly speaks at continuing legal education programs on real estate issues. Erica is a Commissioner on the Village of Skokie Economic Development Commission. She represented the North Suburban Bar Association on the drafting committee for revisions to the Multi-Board Contract.  She has maintained her Real Estate License for over 29 years. 

Panelists

Alderman Leslie Hairston

Leslie Hairston won her sixth term as alderman of Chicago’s 5^th Ward in the 2019 municipal election. Winning her first election against an incumbent in 1999, she currently is the longest serving alderman to represent the diverse South Side ward—surpassing her political mentor Leon Despres.

A politician and attorney, the Chicago native is a fierce community advocate with deep roots in the South Shore and Hyde Park neighborhoods. Hairston sits on three city council committees. She is vice chair of Finance and a member of Budget & Government Operations and Aviation.  She also chairs the council’s Women’s Caucus and Black Caucus subcommittee on Business and is a member of the Chicago City Council Progressive Reform Coalition.

It is her experience as an attorney that has helped to shape her attention to detail. A gift Hairston will need more than ever as she seeks to balance the construction of the Obama Presidential Center and the potential gentrification of the 5^th Ward that could threaten the displacement of long time residents. In 2016, she introduced an ordinance calling for the creation of an Independent Citizen Police Monitor—a credible civilian agency to investigate police shootings, use of force, domestic violence, bias and coercion.

Hairston has a long history of balancing infrastructure improvements, business development, and initiatives to enhance ward residents’ safety, security and quality of life. Most recently, construction of the Sophy Hotel in Hyde Park, and Solstice on the Park, which took 12 years to complete, because of the 2008 recession. Soon to open is a new grocery store, a movie theater and several casual dining restaurants. Hairston also joined other aldermen to demand a more diverse workforce on the recent $8.5 billion O’Hare International Airport expansion passed by the City Council in 2018.

Hairston oversees many notable cultural and natural assets, including the lakefront, Jackson Park, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the University of Chicago. She takes particular pride in developing new institutions through partnerships between the community, business and government – such as preserving and refurbishing the South Shore Cultural Center and culinary school, or working closely with Gary Comer’s family to create the Comer Education Center, which includes a youth center, a middle- and high-school in Greater Grand Crossing.

Hairston’s reputation for principled positions extends beyond her ward—which is known for its history of independent, progressive politics. She was among the handful of aldermen who did not support the sale or lease of such city assets as parking meters. She also voted against speed cameras and fought ordinances that disproportionately burdened lakefront condominiums with requirements for sprinkler systems and façade improvements. In 2008, she accepted the challenge to live on $21 in food stamps for a week, leading her to sponsor city legislation expanding use of the Link card to purchase fresh produce.

A strong litigator, Hairston previously served as assistant attorney general for the state of Illinois and staff attorney and special prosecutor for the State’s Attorney’s Appellate Prosecutor’s Office, where she argued before the Illinois State Supreme Court. An active member of the Illinois State Bar Association, she serves on its Real Estate Law section council.

Hairston is heavily involved in professional, legal and social service activities, such as the Illinois State Bar, Cook County Bar and Black Women Lawyers associations, Friends of the Park, Loyola Law School Diversity Council, True Star and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.  She is proud of her work with youth-based initiatives, which reflects her mother’s career as a CPS teacher and principal for 43 years. Hairston’s father was an entrepreneur, who was one of the first black McDonald’s owners on the city’s South Side. He also owned the Avenue Lounge in Woodlawn.

Adrian Zeno

Adrian P. Zeno, Esq. was sworn into the Illinois Bar in May 2006. He is a graduate of The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois. While attending DePaul University, he became a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.-Kappa Phi Chapter. Attorney Zeno spent a significant part of his childhood in Italy, France, Belgium and Los Angeles, California (father played professional basketball around the globe). He moved to Chicago, Illinois at age 12 and became a member of the Chatham and Hyde Park communities.

Attorney is founder of Zeno Law Office, P.C.. For over a decade, Zeno Law Office, P.C. has been among the leaders in landlord advocacy-representing landlords in evictions, city code violation hearings, real estate closings and foreclosure defense

Michael Zink
Starr, Bejgiert, Zink & Rowells

Michael J. Zink is a Partner at the Law Offices of Starr, Bejgiert, Zink & Rowells. Michael is a graduate of the DePaul University College of Law and previously earned his undergraduate degree cum laude in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an Edmund James Scholar. He is the Chair of the Landlord-Tenant Subcommittee of the Chicago Bar Association Real Property Law Committee.

Michael has held a wide range of leadership roles in bar associations and community organizations including the Illinois State Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association, the Advocates Society, Wrigleyville community groups, the Chicago Archdiocese, and the Chicago Baseball Museum.  He has authored multiple published legal articles, has given presentations for MCLE credit, and has given interviews for Chicago television stations on a variety of legal matters.  He has practiced landlord-tenant law for over 15 years.

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