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Margaret Kostopulos
Email: mkostopulos@ancelglink.com
Member: Chicago Bar Association and Womens' Bar Association of Illinois
Education: Loyola University (B.A.), John Marshall Law School (J.D.)
Practice Areas: Municipal Law, Labor and Employment, and Litigation
Bio:
Margaret Kostopulos joined the firm of Ancel, Glink, Diamond, Bush, DiCianni and Krafthefer, P.C., as an attorney in September of 2001. She received her Bachelors of Arts from Loyola University and her J.D. from the John Marshall Law School. Prior to joining Ancel, Glink, Ms. Kostopulos worked in the public sector as in-house counsel on labor and employment issues.
Ms. Kostopulos served as the labor and employment attorney for the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County during the late 1980's when the Illinois legislature first provided public employees the right to unionize. Ms. Kostopulos led the Chief Judge, as the employer of court employees, through the first union campaigns and elections ever held in the circuit court. She has litigated in a variety of forums, including the State Labor Board, Appellate Court, State Supreme Court and Federal District Court, on a number of union issues relating to collective bargaining and personnel. In one of these cases she was able to expand the power of public employers to resist collective bargaining for certain classes of employees. She also represented the court in grievance arbitrations as well as a variety of employment litigation issues.
Ms. Kostopulos has also served as lead negotiator in collective bargaining with a variety of unions representing public employees as probation officers, engineers, custodial workers and psychologists. While working for the Cook County Circuit Court she bargained initial contracts for all of its currently unionized employees as well as renegotiated those contracts upon expiration.
In addition to serving as the labor and employment counsel for the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court, Ms. Kostopulos, spent three years as Administrative Director for the Court. In that capacity she served as a liaison for the Court with Cook County, other counties in the state, as well as the State Supreme Court administration on issues such as budgets, new programs, rules and other general administrative operations.
Ms. Kostopulos comes to Ancel, Glink after serving for three years with the Chicago Public Schools. There she represented the School Board in litigation with its teachers union as well as six other unions representing a total of 35,000 employees. Along with her traditional labor representation, she supervised a unit of attorneys responsible for employee discipline and tenured teacher discharge. Ms. Kostopulos spent most of her tenure with Chicago Public Schools as Director of Labor Relations where she acted as the liaison between the CEO and the various labor unions in contract administration and collective bargaining. In that capacity she also implemented a grievance mediation program, which significantly reduced litigation with the teaching staff. Along with her responsibilities for labor relations with Chicago Public Schools, Ms. Kostopulos participated in school reform issues as well as drafting various board policies and procedures.
In addition to her litigation and collective bargaining experience, Ms. Kostopulos served as advisor to her employers, department heads, supervisors and principals in all areas of employment and personnel issues. These issues include employee discipline and discharge along with compliance with federal and state labor and employment laws, such as the Family Medical Leave Act, and the Americans With Disabilities Act. She advised on compliance with applicable collective bargaining agreements, including the grievance process.
Ms. Kostopulos participated in numerous in-house training programs on issues of labor and employment both at the Cook County Circuit Court and the Chicago Public Schools. She also served on Advisory Committees for the Chicago Public Schools on the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Illinois Ethics Code.
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