Odelson considered a 'dean of election lawyers'

By Pat Milhizer
Law Bulletin staff writer

Raised on Chicago's South Side, Burton S. Odelson grew up around Catholic churches and White Sox fans.

Odelson is Jewish. And he's a Cubs fan.

"I had to be different," he said.

When last year's pre-election polls showed Rahm Emanuel with support from voters throughout the city, Odelson served as the face of the legal challenge to Emanuel's mayoral candidacy.

The case sparked dinner table debates as Odelson contended that Emanuel forfeited his Chicago residency — and thus, the right to run for mayor — when he moved to Washington, D.C. to become President Barack Obama's chief of staff.

A wave of criticism followed.

A newspaper editorial cartoon featured a judge saying "give it up" as Odelson is portrayed arguing that Emanuel was born in Kenya and vacations in Thailand. Another editorial questioned how Odelson thought he could win on appeal.

Sure enough, Odelson's victory, although short-lived, came in the Illinois Appellate Court.

"Despite the image that he may get, he's a guy that I enjoy having cases against because he's good," said an attorney from Emanuel's legal team, Michael J. Kasper of Fletcher, O'Brien, Kasper & Nottage P.C. "I wish I had the same professional relationship I have with him with everybody else. It makes your life a lot easier."

Emanuel will be sworn in as mayor Monday, as nothing stopped him from coasting to City Hall.

But Odelson's challenge was a speed bump in the mayoral race, capturing the city's attention and shining a spotlight on the legal process.

Building a practice

Odelson, 63, grew up near 81st Street and Pulaski Road, the son of a tobacco salesman and a housewife.

In the 1960s, one could go to law school without an undergraduate degree. Odelson skipped his senior year at the University of Illinois at Chicago after getting accepted at Chicago-Kent College of Law.

During his school years, Odelson worked at such places as a gas station, a loading dock and construction site.

"When you have to work to make it on your own, the education means more," Odelson said. "Everything's always meant more to me. And I never lost the South Side fighter type of mentality."

He also developed a knack for networking in many political arenas.

When he received a law degree in 1972, Odelson became an attorney for the 18th Ward Democratic Party. The following year, he represented three candidates who were thrown off the ballot in municipal races in Harwood Heights.

Odelson couldn't get them back on the ballot, but he ran their write-in campaigns. All three candidates won and the newly-elected officials rewarded Odelson with a job as their village attorney.

When Richard M. Daley ran his first, but unsuccessful, campaign for mayor, Odelson prepared the legal paperwork to get Daley on the ballot. Odelson did the same role in the second campaign that put Daley in office for 22 years.

When the city created new aldermanic wards in 2001, Odelson helped shape the wards in black neighborhoods. From 2006 to last year, Odelson served as the Cook County Board's parliamentarian during Todd Stroger's time as board president.

Odelson also ran for office.

Voters elected him as a trustee at Moraine Valley Community College when he was 29 years old. He served as chairman of the board for 12 of 18 years, leaving the Palos Hills school in 1996.

"There are people working there today that I helped get jobs there 30 years ago," Odelson said.

He also chairs the board of Brother Rice High School, where he helped coach the hockey team from 1997 to 2001.

Of all the ventures in government and education, Odelson made his name in election law.

"Burt is the dean of election lawyers," said sole practitioner James P. Nally, explaining that Odelson has been practicing election law the longest among local lawyers since Mike Lavelle passed away in 2009.

"I think Burt is very good at taking an area that's very complex and sorting it out and presenting it in a way to an electoral board or a court that gets it down to: These are the facts. This is the law. And this is the law as applied to those facts," Nally said. "I've always enjoyed whatever side I've been on, with or against Burt. He can be a fierce opponent or staunch ally."

In 1992, Odelson went to the U.S. Supreme Court with Eugene Pincham, a former judge and lawyer who is now deceased. Odelson successfully represented a slate of candidates who wanted to run for county offices under the flag of the Harold Washington Party.

That same decade, Odelson represented Rosemary Mulligan, whose 1990 campaign for state representative ended in a tie at the ballot box.

Voters used punch-card ballots at the time, and a recount was held. Election judges needed to decide whether a vote should count if the ballot was indented but not completely punched out.

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that votes would count if the election judges could see light through the chad, the paper fragment on the ballot that should be poked out. Mulligan lost the race by a few votes, but she got elected to the General Assembly two years later.

"I owed Burt a lot of money," said Mulligan, a Des Plaines Republican. "And he was really good about it. In the end, he forgave some of the debt."

The case did more than just establish new law for Illinois elections.

Bush v. Gore

It was the day before Thanksgiving in 2000 when Odelson got a call from George W. Bush's campaign manager. Bush's team wanted Odelson to join the recount battle in Florida in the presidential election against Al Gore.

Odelson didn't hesitate.

"I went to Jewel; I got a turkey and stuffing, and we had Thanksgiving at 10 o'clock in the morning," Odelson said about his family that consists of his wife, Patti, three children and four step-children.

"And at 2 o'clock, I was on a plane."

Odelson went to Florida to file court briefs on Bush's behalf.

Relying on the argument from Mulligan's case, Odelson contended that votes should only count if an election judge can see light through the chad.

"I was the only election law lawyer down there. Frankly, I think that's why Gore lost. He had corporate lawyers, personal-injury lawyers, $500 an hour lawyers. But no election lawyers," Odelson said.

Opening doors, getting exposure

The legal work for the 2012 election cycle won't begin until later this year, but Odelson is busy.

He's the president of Odelson & Sterk Ltd., a law firm on West 95th Street in Evergreen Park.

The firm's halls resemble a museum of sports memorabilia, historic photos, newspaper clippings and pop culture references. Odelson covered the walls of his personal office with a plethora of photos of politicians and his family.

With a primary practice of representing local governments, the firm's client roster includes more than a dozen suburbs, five school districts and two townships.

The firm defends the public bodies against lawsuits in all levels of the court system. It also provides legal advice and litigation services in matters involving employee contracts, land acquisition, zoning, economic development and bond sales.

Clients also include labor unions such as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the union that represents Chicago Transit Authority and Pace bus drivers.

The 15-lawyer firm added the suburbs of Riverdale and Lyons as clients last month. In addition, the firm will expand with a second office on 95th Street and hire another lawyer.

The firm's everyday government practice pays the bills. Odelson's election law work is like an investment.

"It's a good means to open doors," Odelson said. "It pays off for years."

For the Emanuel residency challenge, Odelson said he received $15,000. The money came from several sources Odelson won't identify, and he denied speculation that funding came from Ald. Edward M. Burke or anybody acting on the alderman's behalf.

"Ald. Burke, I never talked to him. Didn't pay me. For two reasons — he didn't offer and I knew the case was ultimately going to the Supreme Court and I wanted to make sure there was no conflict with Justice Burke," Odelson said, referring to the alderman's wife, Supreme Court Justice Anne M. Burke.

After Odelson won a 2-1 decision in the Emanuel case in the Illinois Appellate Court in January, the Supreme Court reversed that ruling and returned Emanuel to the ballot.

Odelson lost the round in the battle that counted the most.

"I've always been used to being the underdog, so to speak, and having to fight upstream. And this time it was really upstream," Odelson said. "They had unlimited funds; I had me. Myself and two associates, and plus, I have to keep my office running."

But it wasn't a total loss.

"I think it helps my business when I get the exposure," Odelson said. "And why shouldn't you feel good about what you do?"