In 1931, Louis Ancel completed Northwestern Law School and began to practice law. Ancel had grown up in the western suburbs of Chicago and, within a few years, he had been chosen to represent a number of municipalities, school districts and other governmental bodies, which were struggling to effectively operate during the Great Depression. Prior to this time, many suburban governmental bodies were represented by local attorneys, often supporters of political dynasties, for whom the representation of public bodies was only a part of a general law practice. Louis Ancel and several other lawyers throughout the State began to make the representation of governmental bodies the centerpiece of their law practices. Ancel continued to add governmental bodies and to increase the size of the firm, while the problems of the depression changed into the difficulties of wartime shortages and eventually the post Second World War Boom. He helped a number of suburban communities to incorporate and represented them during spectacular growth which resulted in communities doubling and tripling in size over a few years. Louis Ancel was an extremely active participant in the activities of the Illinois Association of School Boards and the Illinois Municipal League. He was the Secretary of the Illinois Constitutional Study Commission, which was instrumental in allowing Illinois to completely revise its 100 year old Constitution into the current 1970 version.

In the middle 60s, Ancel added to his firm two brothers, Marvin and Ronald Glink. Marvin had served as the Corporation Counsel for the Village of Skokie and Ronald was an experienced trial attorney. In 1967, Ancel hired Stewart Diamond, who had taught law and served as a municipal attorney and economic planner before joining the law firm. The firm changed from Ancel's ownership to a professional corporation in 1972. After a distinguished career, Louis Ancel passed away in 1991. Ronald Glink, still a young man, passed away in 1982. Marvin Glink, after representing many municipalities for the law firm, including the City of Naperville, retired in 1996. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Municipal Lawyers Association and passed away in 2008. Stewart Diamond, now President of the corporation, continues to represent a large number of governmental bodies, as regular and special counsel. During the 1980s and 1990s, the firm's current senior partners Robert Bush, Tom DiCianni and the late Bob Rolek joined the firm, each bringing with them an area of special expertise. Rob Bush, who began his career as a tort and workers' compensation attorney, now devotes a great deal of his time to representing governmental bodies. He has also helped to organize many governmental self-insurance pools. Tom DiCianni is an experienced and highly successful litigator, who has represented many governmental bodies and private clients in both trial and appellate courts. Robert Rolek served for more than 15 years as the Executive Director of a large park district and helped Ancel, Glink to dramatically expand its practice into Lake and other collar counties. Robert Rolek passed away in 2005. Keri-Lyn Krafthefer, who has represented many municipalities and has expanded the firm’s representation into townships and election law, became one of the shareholders in 2006. Derke J. Price, who has represented municipalities, park districts and other governmental bodies and expanded the firm’s work into environmental and regulatory law, became a shareholder in 2010.

The Ancel, Glink firm has originated many publications, including the Illinois Municipal Handbook and the two multi-volume publications of the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, Municipal Law and Practice in Illinois, and Illinois School Law. These latter two publications are used by attorneys throughout the State to assist them in their representation of governmental bodies. The firm also publishes pamphlets regarding park district and township law, along with specialty publications on financial matters regarding libraries and fire protection districts. For more information about these pamphlets, please review the section on publications.

Attorneys at the law firm drafted the section of the Illinois Complied Statutes, which permits annexation agreements, have helped to create more governmental self-insurance pools in this State than any other law firm, and continues to represent many of these governmental pools as corporate and defense attorneys. The attorneys of Ancel, Glink wrote and successfully defended the "Naperville Ordinance" which allows governmental bodies to require developers to make contributions to school districts and park districts. The firm has also pioneered, through the use of home rule powers and annexation agreements, the expansion of impact fees to other governmental bodies affected by explosive development. Utilizing provisions of the Intergovernmental Cooperation section of the Constitution and statutes, the attorneys at Ancel, Glink have helped governments throughout the State achieve expanded powers and economies of scale. Our attorneys have helped many communities as special counsel in labor and personnel matters, negotiations with real estate developers and economic development projects leading to special assessments, tax increment financing and special service districts.