Office

120 South Riverside Plaza
Suite 1200
Chicago, IL 60606
P 312.876.7838
F 312.876.0288
Email

Practice

Consumer Finance »
Litigation »

Sharilee Kempa Smentek
Partner

Ms. Smentek is a partner in Arnstein & Lehr's Litigation group. She handles a broad range of commercial litigation matters, including fraud, misrepresentation and consumer fraud claims, breach of contract claims, employment issues, matters involving real property, including actions for equitable mortgages/liens, real estate brokerage commission disputes, real estate broker/agent ethics violations, consumer finance matters, construction defect claims, defamation claims, breach of fiduciary duty matters, declaratory judgments and matters involving various injunctive and equitable remedies. Ms. Smentek has experience in all aspects of litigation, including pre-trial discovery, preparing and arguing dispositive motions, handling mediations and pre-trial settlement conferences, binding and non-binding arbitration proceedings, bench trials and the appeal process. She joined the Firm in 2002 after graduating Order of the Coif from DePaul University College of Law.

Professional Activities and Achievements

Ms. Smentek has lectured on real estate litigation, including “Real Estate Salesperson Liability,” an Illinois State Bar Association - Real Estate Law Section seminar presented in Spring 2004. She is the co-author of a chapter in the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education’s 2004 Edition of “Commercial Real Estate.” Ms. Smentek also co-authored an article entitled “Servicemembers Civil Relief Act of 2003: Old Wine in a New Bottle?”, which appeared in the Winter, 2005 edition of the Consumer Finance Law Quarterly Report.

While in law school, Ms. Smentek was a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and on the Dean’s List. She received her Certificate in Taxation and was awarded the Chicago Bar Association - Federal Taxation Committee, Outstanding Student Award for 2002. Ms. Smentek was a founding member of the Woman’s Bar Association of Illinois - DePaul Center, serving as its first Vice-President of Programming. Ms. Smentek was also selected as a member of Who’s Who Among American Law Students for both 2001 and 2002.

Education

DePaul University College of Law (J.D. summa cum laude, 2002; Order of the Coif)
University of Illinois (B.S. in Finance, 1999)
Senshu University (Tokyo, Japan)

Bar Admissions

State of Illinois; U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois; U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin