Julie A. Tappendorf

Ancel Glink, P.C, Chicago

Tappendorf, an Equity Partner at Ancel Glink, P.C., in Chicago, focuses her practice on local government and land use matters, counseling clients on land use, FOIA, open meetings, ethics, social media, and many other topics. She regularly attends board and commission meetings on behalf of the firm’s government clients and has extensive experience negotiating annexation and development agreements, drafting zoning and other development regulations and approvals, and negotiating development projects, including TIF and special service area financing transactions. She also represents clients in land use disputes and defends clients in lawsuits brought in state and federal courts.

Tappendorf currently serves as city attorney for Lake Forest and Park Ridge and village attorney for Glenview, Gilberts, and Lindenhurst. She also serves as counsel to numerous Illinois municipal libraries and library districts and as special counsel to government clients on the Freedom of Information Act, zoning and land use, social media, litigation, and related matters.

Tappendorf is the author of the local government blog, Municipal Minute, where she writes about current cases, laws, and other topics of interest to local government officials and employees. She is also the editor of Ancel Glink Today, an e-newsletter distributed to firm clients twice each month. Julie is Cochair of Ancel Glink's land use practice. She is Past Cochair of the Chicago Bar Association/Chicago Bar Foundation’s Pro Bono Week and a member of the American Planning Association’s Amicus Committee as well as the Legacy Project, Advancing Women In Local Government.

Prior to her law career, Tappendorf served for eight years in the United States Army, Military Intelligence Branch, as a Korean cryptologic-linguist. She received her BA from Illinois State University and her JD from the University of Hawaii, William S. Richardson School of Law.