The Peithmann Law Office

Practical, effective, advice and counsel. Discrete and careful work – that’s what farmers and small businesses want, and that’s why successful Central Illinois clients have looked to The Peithmann Law Office since its founding almost 65 years ago.

Background:

The Peithmann Law Office was founded in Farmer City in 1948 by Ortheldo A. Peithmann and his CPA wife, Winona C. Peithmann, as a general practice law firm with a tilt toward municipal law, farm estate planning and tax matters. Bill Peithmann joined the firm in 1985 after a stint as international corporate counsel in California. In May, 2012, the firm re-located 15 miles east to Mahomet, Illinois, where Bill and his wife Lisa have lived since 2006.

Durable, Capable, Reliable:

Over time the firm has narrowed its practice to providing customized tax, wealth management and related services to select clients throughout Illinois and Colorado. The Peithmann Law Office is dedicated to providing only the highest quality legal services, equivalent or superior to that provided by larger firms in more urban venues, and proudly stands behind its work. As a result, The Peithmann Law Office is regularly cited by its peers as among the very best in Illinois.

Since 2011 the firm has been included in the "U.S. News and World Report America’s Best Law Firms"® with a Tier 1 metropolitan ranking for Trusts and Estates law.

Limited Practice:

The Peithmann Law Office limits its practice to select matters involving wealth management and preservation; asset protection; basic, intermediate and advanced estate planning; trust and estate administration; fiduciary support; charitable organizations; contested estates; elder law; closely-held businesses (especially, family farm operations); business succession planning; commercial and farm real estate; and gift, estate and income taxation of all types.

The firm is very selective in the new clients and referrals it accepts.

Farms and Farming:

Bill Peithmann is a member of the DeWitt County and Piatt County Farm Bureaus and a Commissioner of the Clintonia Union drainage district. He actively manages several small Central Illinois farm operations and also acts as trustee or trustee's agent on behalf of several charitable and non-charitable beneficiaries.

More than half of the firm's clients are engaged, directly or indirectly, in farming.

Fees:

All Illinois law firms are required to charge "reasonable fees", and The Peithmann Law Office is no exception. According to Rule 1.5(a) of Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct the factors to be considered in determining a reasonable fee include but are not limited to:

* the time and labor required

* the novelty and difficulty of the questions involved

* the skill requisite to perform the legal services properly

* fees customarily charged in the locality for similar legal services

* the amount of property value involved

* the presence or absence of compelling time restraints

* the results obtained; and,

* the experience, reputation, and ability of the lawyer or lawyers performing the services.

The Peithmann Law Office calculates its fees upon a balancing of all the foregoing criteria, and as a consequence its "hourly rates" for legal services fluctuate widely from case to case, primarily because straight hourly rates for legal services tend to reinforce the slow and inefficient. All fees are established by prior agreement on terms intended to be commensurate with the value of the work performed and the results attained for the benefit of the client.

While certainly not a low cost provider of legal services, the firm's fees are very competitive with other law firms of similar experience and abilities providing similar legal services, and are substantially less than the fees charged by equivalent firmst in Chicago or its collar counties.