Hauser, Izzo, DeTella & Petrarca, LLC is a full service school and municipal law firm whose members have provided more than 70 collective years of service to school districts and other municipal bodies. The firm specializes in the following areas of the law:
School Law
Collective Bargaining
Board Policy and Procedures, Ethics and Open Meetings
Student Discipline and Residency
Construction Contracts and Litigation
Property Acquisition, Sale and Eminent Domain
School Finance and Debt Issuance
Property Tax Assessment Appeals
Property Tax Objections
Civil Rights Litigation
Risk Management and Liability Avoidance
Personnel Management
Insurance Defense
Elections and Referenda
Municipal and Local Government Law
Collective Bargaining
Board Policy and Procedures, Ethics and Open Meetings
Municipal Finance and Debt Issuance
Civil Rights Litigation
Risk Management and Liability Avoidance
Construction Contracts and Litigation
Personnel Management
Insurance Defense
Ordinances and Ordinance Enforcement
Intergovernmental Relations
We have established a solid reputation for ourselves as a personal law firm that puts clients first and serves them with honesty and integrity. We believe our success is driven by a client-focused approach to the successful resolution of legal issues.
We manage each client’s interests as a team. We assign primary responsibility for each issue to the lawyer whose skills and experience may best achieve a successful outcome in a cost-effective manner. Nevertheless, we each stand ready to contribute our time and expertise, as needed, without compounding costs. This collaborative strategy works well for us, and our clients, and allows us to draw readily on those resources that will produce the best results. Public bodies which retain us, retain our entire firm at the cost of a single attorney.
We pride ourselves as being on the cutting edge of those issues most important to our clients. Mr. Hauser received national media attention when he filed one of the first legal challenges to the Child Left Behind Act in an effort to reconcile school district obligations under that Act with obligations to special education students under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. As a result of that litigation, the State of Illinois has adopted legislation which permits special education students to be measured under the NCLBA with regard to progress toward individualized educational programs rather than generic state standards. Mr. Hauser also successfully sued to obtain the only State Construction Grant awarded to a special education cooperative in Illinois. Mr. Izzo has successfully written several laws amending the Illinois School Code and the Property Tax Code, including those reconciling a school district’s budgetary practices with tax levy timelines and avoiding some of the harshest consequences of the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (“tax cap”). Mr. Izzo has written extensively on the issues relating to freedom of religion in the schools and has defended governmental entities in several landmark cases in that area. Mr. Izzo and Mr. DeTella are leaders in the defense of property tax appeals and tax rate objections. Mr. DeTella and Mr. Petrarca have, through their legal arguments, established key judicial guidance in the areas of school residency and homeless education. All members of the firm have been responsible for judicial decisions establishing the parameters of student discipline. Although young, Mr. Gleason has already established himself as a dominant figure in insurance defense litigation.
Strong enough to litigate, yet dedicated to a proactive approach which sees the high cost of litigation as a last resort, we are firmly committed to managing risk and liability in the most cost effective manner. “An ounce of prevention is [without question] worth a pound of cure.” We would much rather avoid a costly problem with timely advice than address the consequences after-the-fact. To this end, we are dedicated to the education of our clients and we offer a full range of in-service topics.
Our goal is simple: stay small enough to be accessible, stay accessible enough to be effective, stay effective enough to save public resources. We hope you will join us in our quest.