Geraci Law’s History and Growth
Geraci Law is a well-established law firm. It was founded as a solo practice by prominent consumer bankruptcy and trial attorney Peter Francis Geraci in October 1977. Geraci Law operated as a sole proprietorship until 2009, growing from one attorney in a 15 x 20’ office at Lawrence and Western, across from a dental lab on the second floor of a small office building, to a multistate Law firm with over 70 attorneys.
As of 2015, Geraci Law is the largest consumer bankruptcy firm in the country, filing over 13,000 consumer bankruptcy cases in Illinois Indiana and Wisconsin. Geraci Law is widely known as a nice place to work. All attorneys and staff subscribe to the firm’s mission statement, which may be summarized as nice people doing nice things for nice people. Geraci Law attorneys and staff are a very diverse group, coming from a wide range of backgrounds and personal histories.
Firm Culture
Attorneys at Geraci Law, as well as non-attorney paralegals, are extraordinarily well educated. Many, in addition to their undergraduate and Law degrees, have multiple state bar admissions, and other degrees such as the MBA. Geraci Law it may be one of the best run Law firms in the country, using standardized management techniques sourced from well-known management experts such as the ISO9001 certification program, and various business publications and programs.
Attorneys and staff at Geraci Law are not only well compensated for their work, but Geraci Law offers a full benefits program, including Blue Cross/Blue Shield health insurance, a variety of PPO and HMO programs, dental insurance, vision insurance, a disability program, and a 401(k) that includes employer matching. Geraci Law has very low turnover, and most attorneys and staff are career path. The firm even provides free lunch on Mondays to everyone, so that, on the busiest day of the week, no one has to worry about getting lunch, and the extra rush of client business can be easily handled by a well fed staff. Soft drinks have been banished, and replaced with yogurt, organic fruit, and of course, a selection of almonds and peanuts for snack. The wellness of staff is of primary concern, and the firm provides free flu shots. Many Geraci Law staff are charitably oriented, running marathons, participating in cancer and mental health charities, as do Mr. and Mrs. Geraci.
Since employees, whether attorneys or staff, stay at Geraci Law very long time, some of them their entire careers, this is a great benefit to coworkers, and also to clients. Only a few staff openings a year are generally available, in those are due usually to an increase in business. When staff to leave, it is usually to move to another part of the country for family reasons. Clients can therefore look forward to seeing the same attorneys working on their cases over the period of years that it sometimes takes to complete a chapter 13, and then they refer their friends or family, they are not referring them to a revolving door of low-paid poorly trained attorneys who know they will not be seen that client again. There is a big advantage, not only to working at a well-established and organize Law firm, but also to being a client of such a Law firm.
Professional and Business Practices
Geraci Law is certified as a provider of continuing legal education by the Illinois Supreme Court continuing legal education committee, and Geraci Law presents at least 40 classroom hours of high-level legal education in the consumer bankruptcy area every year. In addition Geraci Law attorneys, and even staff, attend national conferences, and all attorneys receive their continuing legal education credits paid for, courtesy of the firm.
Geraci Law has its own internal IT department, and proprietary hardware and software systems. The office is entirely green, being a paperless and recycling Advocate. There are no paper files, and the firm maintains its own hardware, backup systems, and emergency recovery systems, to ensure the integrity of client data, and also the efficiency in daily work. The proprietary programming has allowed Geraci Law to be the leader in the consumer bankruptcy field, recognized across the country as the largest and best example of service to the consumer bankruptcy client.
In order to ensure compliance with the highest ethical standards, Geraci Law has internal quality control that is legendary, and all work is under constant scrutiny to ensure that it meets the firm standards. This enables Geraci Law to deliver a high quality product at a very reasonable price, and ensures that the attorneys and staff have a good day every day, as well as our clients. Geraci Law has never had an attorney with a disciplinary complaint from a client, and maintains a perfect record in that regard for almost 40 years. Clients love to give the firm reviews, as evidenced by five-star ratings from almost every Internet purveyor of reputation reviews, including the Better Business Bureau, where the firm maintains an A+ rating, and a 99.8% satisfaction rate.
The Highest Professional Standards
To sum up, Geraci Law has grown and thrived over the years by adhering to the highest professional standards, both internally as far as its employees and shareholders, and externally, in the federal courts at practices in, and with its hundreds of thousands of clients. With almost 15,000 new clients a year, 400,000 phone calls answered, hundreds of thousands of documents that the firm is required to obtain store, it is a testament to the firm’s management, and to everyone at Geraci Law, that the firm continues to thrive.
Amazingly, the firm’s founder Peter Francis Geraci, is actively engaged in the operation and management of the firm on a daily basis, and still puts and 50 hours a week. Combined with the non -Lawyer management staff, the highly trained paralegals, and over 70 attorneys putting in 50 hours a week, the Geraci Law staff is dedicated to delivering quality legal services at a very reasonable cost.