The Beermann Law Group carries a lot of weight in the family court system in Cook County and the surrounding counties.
They have been accused of running a bribery scheme in a lawsuit filed by Kenton Girard.
Earlier this month, Karmen Andrews told me that she experienced bias when dealing with Beermann in her ongoing child custody case.
Beermann has also been active in politics, according to Illinois election campaign donation records, and I reached out to Marty Gottesfeld for help making sense of their political donations.
He told me that found that between contributions from the firm, the lawyers in the firm, and their family members, Beermann gave over $184,000 during the period Marty looked at.
While that number may seem high, donations go back to 2000, Beermann has approximately 50 attorneys in their two offices, and exponentially that many people when their family is included.
Furthermore, the donations are spread to a variety of races.
For instance, Beermann gave money to the aldermanic campaign of Bob Fioretti (when he was running for alderman over a decade ago), the 2nd ward Democratic Organization, and Ed Burke, the longtime alderman who was recently released from federal prison.
Beermann also contributed to candidates with a direct relationship to their work like Illinois Appellate Judge Aurelia Pucinski,
Beermann also contributed to Justice Rita Garman, formerly on the Illinois Supreme Court.
Judge Cecilia Gamrath is currently on the Illinois Appeals Court, but she was a Cook County Circuit Judge when she received multiple campaign donations from Beermann.
One name conspicuously missing from campaign donations is Judge Regina Scannicchio. Judge Scannicchio was implicated by Kenton Girard, when in amended petition to his lawsuit, he argued that she made sure that only Beermann friendly judges were appointed to his case.
In 2024, Judge Scannicchio exhibited bias and a heavy-handed approach when I witnessed a hearing between Eddie Engels and Feliza Castro, who was represented by Beermann.
Beermann didn’t make any donations to her campaigns. Marty provided a potential explanation by email.
Regina Scannicchio ran unopposed and has since only had retention elections, it seems: https://ballotpedia.org/Regina_Ann_Scannicchio.
It does strike me as odd that she garners only a little over 75% in the retention elections. To have one fifth of the electorate not want her makes it seem many are aware of something that makes them dislike her.
Anyway, she may not have registered a campaign org given she’s never had even token opposition.
Stay tuned for more on Beermann.
