Justino D. Petrarca

Equity Partner

312.565.3100 ext. 234
312.565.0000 fax

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Mr. Petrarca's practice is concentrated in labor negotiations, labor relations law and school desegregation. Mr. Petrarca has significant experience in negotiating public contracts, including teachers, educational support professionals (bus drivers, custodians, secretaries, teacher aides), as well as municipal contracts, including police officers, firefighters, and public works employees. Additionally, Mr. Petrarca’s experience includes work in school finance, school district consolidation and detachment and public sector labor law.

Mr. Petrarca has significant experience in alternatives to traditional approaches and strategies for collective bargaining. His experience in this area ranges from his involvement in numerous “win-win” approaches to various collaborative bargaining models he has presented, implemented and facilitated. Mr. Petrarca regularly is selected to train, in conjunction with the Illinois Education Association, various management advocates, and attorneys, as well as UniServ directors and teacher representatives in the interest-based model. Mr. Petrarca has trained and facilitated the interest based model in Illinois, Michigan, New Mexico, Colorado, Ohio, Alaska, Iowa, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Florida.

Before attending law school, Mr. Petrarca was a public school teacher (secondary schools) and school administrator (building and central office experience), with approximately ten years experience in these areas. This prior education experience provides Mr. Petrarca with particular understanding of issues relating to schools and labor matters of importance to boards of education and administrators. At the same time, he is able to clearly understand and respond to the concerns of various employee groups in a school labor setting.

Mr. Petrarca is a regular presenter at national conferences of the American Association of School Administrators, National School Boards Association, National Council of School Attorneys, the North American Association of Educational Negotiators, and Midwest Suburban Superintendents’ Group. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the National Council of School Attorneys. He has also appeared as a guest speaker on school legal issues on numerous occasions for such groups as the DuPage County Bar Association, DuPage County Educational Service Region, Phi Delta Kappa Educational Fraternity, as well as a teacher institute speaker for numerous Illinois school districts. Mr. Petrarca is also a certified instructor for the State administrator academies, and provides regular inservice training to school administrators in such areas as labor negotiations, contract administration, teacher evaluation, remediation and dismissal, sexual harassment, and various other legal educational issues.

Mr. Petrarca received his Bachelor's degree, graduating cum laude, from the University of Illinois in 1971.  In 1975 he received a Master's degree, magna cum laude, in Educational Administration from the National College of Education.  He received his Juris Doctor degree from the John Marshall Law School in 1982.  In addition to teaching at the secondary school level, Mr. Petrarca has taught classes in school law for both classroom teachers and administrators.