Welcome to
Elias, Meginnes &
Seghetti, P.C.
Elias, Meginnes & Seghetti, P.C. is a business law firm that has been successfully serving clients for over 20 years. The Firm is the successor of the business law department of the Peoria office of a Chicago-based national law firm that had about 400 lawyers. The Firm has been AV-Rated by Martindale and Hubbell for many years.
A majority of the client base of the Firm consists of closely held businesses and their owners, each of whom has a wide array of legal issues that need hands-on attention at a reasonable cost. Many of the Firm’s clients have been with the Firm for many years, principally because the Firm has the required core competencies not usually found in a law firm of its size and because The firm consistently strives to exceed clients’ expectations. The core competencies of the Firm include general business law, corporate representation, mergers & acquisitions, taxation law, estate planning, employee benefits, health plans, business litigation, real estate law, environmental law, healthcare law, municipal law and development and loan transactions, workouts and foreclosure.
Collateral Base is a multi-practice firm serving clients in Peoria and the surrounding areas. It has been in the industry for over a decade, providing business formation, real estate, commercial banking, and corporate and trust litigation. The firm works with clients looking to form a corporation or LLCs and handles conflicts involving breach of contract and non-compete agreements. Its lawyers also advise business owners on regulatory risks, contract liabilities, and employee issues. Its founding attorney, Tom Howard, is a member of the NCIA.
The Firm has maintained an extremely active practice in Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) for over two decades, achieving a regional reputation in this challenging area. The Firm’s success has been driven largely by its deep collective knowledge and experience in M&A transactions, and the wide variety of legal matters that must be addressed therein, including taxation, corporate, finance, employee benefits, real estate, environmental, due diligence, and, where necessary, litigation. The Firm’s M&A clients include both businesses that the Firm represents on a regular basis, as well as buyers and sellers that hire the Firm for transactional representation. On occasion, the M&A transaction includes a private placement of equity or debt and the Firm is very experienced in this aspect of M&A. The Firm’s M&A practice covers a wide variety of sectors, such automobile dealerships, Farm equipment dealerships, fertilizer companies, environmental companies, industrial companies, franchise/distribution businesses, health care entities, medical and other professional firms, ESOP companies, and casino and video gaming companies.
The Firm serves as general counsel to numerous closely-held businesses that do not have an internal legal staff to handle the wide variety of legal issues that arise. Clients in this “general counsel” category include businesses involved in manufacturing, distribution, environmental services, insurance agencies, banking, real estate brokerage/development, professional firms (physicians, engineering, architecture), automobile dealerships, casino gaming, video gaming, private equity, general contractors, equipment manufacturers and farmers. The Firm also is called on by clients for representation in specific transactions within almost all of its core competencies.
The Firm has had a highly sophisticated tax practice, covering the following areas, among others:
Much of the Firm’s work in these areas arise out of referrals from accountants, attorneys and other business professionals from various locations throughout the Midwest and the United States.
The Firm’s Taxation Practice is led by John S. Elias, a leading Midwest practitioner in this area. The Firm’s Tax litigation practice is also led by John S. Elias and supported by the Firm’s litigators, primarily Janaki Nair, the head of the Firm’s litigation practice, and Cynthia L. Elias, Of Counsel to the Firm.
The Firm has an active Estate Planning Practice, servicing mainly closely-held businesses and their owners. Services include family planning both from a business succession and estate and gift tax perspective involving, among other things, the use of inter-vivos and testamentary trusts, family limited partnerships (LLCs), and other techniques, as well as various post-mortem tax strategies.
The Firm maintains a sophisticated employee benefits practice, including self-funded and fully insured group health plans, flexible spending plans and fringe benefits, association plans, pension and ESOP plans, HIPAA compliance, Affordable Care Act compliance, 457 Plans, deferred compensation arrangements, and state and federal litigation of employee benefits issues. Firm clients in this areas include employers, associations, governmental entities, insurance companies, and third-party administrators.
The Firm’s practice in this area is led by of David N Schellenberg, a full time leading practitioner in this area, with the related litigation led by Janaki Nair, the head of the Firm’s litigation practice.
The firm is general counsel to a number of substantial physician groups. Representing and advising them in regulatory matters as well as general business and corporate matters.
The Firm litigators have extensive experience in the Federal Courts and the Courts of the State of
Illinois, in numerous substantive areas of the law that affect businesses and entrepreneurs,
including without limitation, the following:
The Firm litigators work hand-in-hand with the business and transactional attorneys at the Firm to provide
comprehensive service to clients.
The Firm represents numerous banks with regard to documenting loan transactions. The Firm’s practice in this area is led by Michael R. Seghetti.
The Firm is also actively engaged in loan workouts and foreclosure for a number of financial institutions.
The Firm serves as corporate counsel to a number of Illinois municipalities, as well as serving as special counsel to a number of other Illinois municipalities in the areas of economic development, public-private partnerships and health benefits plans oftentimes through intergovernmental associations.
The Firm’s Real Estate Practice includes a very active real estate transactional and leasing component all over the State of Illinois, as well as servicing the real estate component of the Firm’s M&A practice. In addition, the Firm for over 15 years has served as real estate counsel to a major national retailer and shopping center developer, including the development of over 50 shopping centers and serving as lead counsel for the development of distribution centers for that retailer.
The Firm’s environmental practice includes representing several environmental consulting companies and waste disposal companies, both from a transactional
and regulatory perspective, as well as providing advice in connection with the Firm’s real estate practice.
Cynthia L. Elias is of counsel to the Firm and practices in the litigation and dispute resolution area. Ms. Elias is a graduate of Harvard Law School. Ms. Elias also earned a Ph.D. in Psychology from Illinois State University and a bachelor’s degree from Miami of Ohio (Summa Cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), where she was valedictorian.
Ms. Elias previously practiced law with several large companies and firms in Massachusetts and New York; and worked as a School Psychologist in Central Illinois before commencing the practice law with the Firm.
Ms. Elias is also President and Chairman of the Board of the Daniel J. Elias Memorial Foundation, which is actively engaged in philanthropic activities.
John S. Elias is a founding member and the Chairman and CEO of the Firm. Mr. Elias can perhaps best be described as a leading middle-market business lawyer with a wealth of experience in the corporate, business planning, securities, tax planning, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) areas.
Mr. Elias is a graduate of Harvard Law School (J.D.); and earned a Masters of Law degree in Taxation from New York University. Mr. Elias also earned a Master’s degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University, England (which he attended on a Reynolds Scholarship), and a BA degree in Economics from Dartmouth College (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa).
Mr. Elias is AV-rated by Martindale Hubbell, and has for many years been selected as an Illinois Leading Lawyer in several business/tax related categories, and as an Illinois Super Lawyer in the Mergers & Acquisitions category. Mr. Elias is the author several articles in national publications such as the Tax Lawyer and the Journal of Corporate Taxation, dealing with income, gift and estate tax planning for closely-held businesses and their owners. Mr. Elias is also a past chairman of the Tax Section of the Illinois State Bar Association.
Prior to founding the Firm, Mr. Elias was partner-in-charge of the Peoria Office of Keck, Mahin & Cate, a Chicago-based national law firm that has about 400 lawyers. In addition to Illinois, Mr. Elias also previously practiced law as a bar member in New York, Massachusetts and Ohio. Mr. Elias is on the Board of Directors of the Daniel J. Elias Memorial Foundation, which is actively engaged in philanthropic activities.
Hearing Board of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois, 2010-present [Panel Chair, March 1, 2016-present]
The Abraham Lincoln Court (f/k/a Abraham Lincoln Inn of the American Inns of Court), 2004-present. Executive Committee, 2009-2015 (President, 2012-2013)
Peoria Promise Foundation, Board of Directors, 2015-present
Secretary, 2015-present
Friends of Peoria Regional Learning Center, Board of Directors, 2017-present
Peoria County Bar Association, 2002-present; Illinois State Bar Association, 2002-present; American Bar Association, 2003-present
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