Jonathan Friedland is a partner with Sugar Felsenthal Grais & Helsinger, LLP.  Although based in Chicago, he is licensed to practice in Arizona, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York.  He views his job very simply:  to make clients money whenever possible and to protect their interests at every turn.  Jonathan holds the highest possible rating from Martindale-Hubbell (AV® Preeminent™) and AVVO (10/10), has been repeatedly recognized as an Illinois “superlawyer” in the areas of Business/Corporate Law and Bankruptcy & Creditor/Debtor Rights, has been named several times as a “Leading Lawyer” by Leading Lawyers Magazine, and has received several other similar distinctions.

Jonathan has extensive experience in guiding companies and their constituents through a variety of challenging situations. He represents companies in distress, their owners and boards of directors, official and ad hoc creditor committees, buyers, and other stakeholders in bankruptcy cases, assignments for the benefit of creditors, receiverships, and out-of-court workouts. And while he is not a trial attorney, his clients trust and depend on his high level strategy acumen in dealing with litigation matters and other disputes. Jonathan is lead author of Strategic Alternatives for Distressed Businesses, and Commercial Bankruptcy Litigation, each published by West. He is also the general editor of A Comparison Shopping Guide for 363 Sales, a 250 page treatise published by the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Jonathan has been profiled, interviewed, and/or quoted in numerous publications, including Buyouts Magazine; Smart Business Magazine; The M&A Journal; Inside Counsel; LAW360; Business Week.com; The Bankruptcy Strategist; Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review; Bankruptcy Court Decisions; Dow Jones LBO Wire; and The Daily Deal. Jonathan graduated from the State University of New York at Albany, magna cum laude, in 1991 (after three years of study) and from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1994. He clerked for a federal judge before entering private practice. He was an Adjunct Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business for several years and was the 2006 Clayton Center for Entrepreneurial Law Visiting Professor of Business Law at the University of Tennessee College of Law. Jonathan was a partner with Kirkland & Ellis before joining SFGH.

Jonathan is also the founder and chairman of DailyDAC, LLC, d/b/a Financial Poise™ (an on-line provider of continuing education, information, and business intelligence for business owners, investors, and their respective trusted advisors).

Honors

• Exclusive Recommended Attorney for Chicago  – Premier Bankruptcy Lawyers (2019)
• Selected by peers as a Leading Lawyer in: Bankruptcy & Workout Law: Commercial; Creditor’s Rights/Commercial Collections Law (2008 – 2017)
• Rated AV® Preeminent™ by Martindale-Hubbell. This is the highest possible rating, awarded to less than 14% of all U.S. attorneys.
• Rated as “Superb” (10 out of 10) by the Attorney Rating Service.
• LawDragon 500 Finalist – LawDragon

Memberships

• American Bankruptcy Institute, Past Director; Past co-executive editor of its flagship publication, the ABI Journal.

• Association for Corporate Growth.
• Turnaround Management Association.  Past education co-chair of the Chicago/Midwest chapter of TMA.

Sugar Felsenthal Grais & Helsinger LLP.

For over 38 years, our clients have turned to us as their most trusted advisors. Through an unmatched level of personal service, combined with our business and legal acumen, we continue to represent almost all of the clients we started with in 1981. Since then, our practice has expanded as our clients have grown, deepening our experience and skills to support their business and legal needs. The enduring relationships we enjoy with our clients are predicated on a simple notion: We deliver.