Speaker

Laurel G. Bellows is a Principal in The Bellows Law Group, P.C. Ms. Bellows is an experienced business lawyer who counsels senior executives around the world on employment matters such as employment contracts, executive compensation, severance agreements and workplace disputes. She also represents clients in areas ranging from commercial litigation to business startups. Ms. Bellows is licensed to practice in the States of Illinois, Florida and California, as well as in Federal courts throughout the country. She is also admitted and qualified as an Attorney and Counsellor of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ms. Bellows is a mediator, certified through the Institute for Conflict Management.

A respected voice on matters concerning negotiation, business litigation and the advancement of professional women, Ms. Bellows has written and lectured extensively. She has spoken on the subject of negotiation tactics before groups such as the Deloitte and Touche Leadership Conference, the Harvard Club of Chicago and the Women’s Leadership Exchange. She authored a chapter on negotiating in The Communication Coach, a book on business and personal communications and has written or been interviewed for articles on litigation and negotiation in publications such as Your Money, Nation’s Business, Chicago Life, Investment Dealer’s Digest, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, Working Woman and The Chicago Tribune.

Ms. Bellows is a leader in the legal community on the local and national levels. Laurel Bellows is Immediate Past President of the American Bar Association, 2013-2014. She is immediate past Chair of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates, the ABA’s policy-making body; the second-highest elected office in the ABA. She is past President of the 22,000-member Chicago Bar Association and the National Council of Bar Presidents. American Lawyer Magazine selected Ms. Bellows as one of seven women nationally who contributed most to the advancement of women in the legal profession, Chicago Magazine designated her as a Power Lawyer and Crain’s Chicago Business named her in the Who’s Who in Chicago Business List and as one of Chicago’s 100 Women of Influence. In addition, Ms. Bellows has served on the Standing Civil Reform Act Advisory Committee of the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the Illinois Supreme Court Special Commission on the Administration of Justice and the U. S. Senate Judicial Nominations Commission for the Northern District of Illinois.