Attorneys

Don Hammer is a partner in the firm of Hayes, Hammer, Miles & Cox, LLP, practicing primarily in the area of family law, including specifically: divorce, adoption, and mediation (ADR). Don also provides a wide range of business, litigation, and real estate services.

Don has a B.A. from the Ohio State University and a J.D. (with high distinction) from the John Marshall Law School, where he was Editor and Chief of the Law Review. After law school he clerked for Justice Howard Ryan of the Illinois Supreme Court and worked for the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. He joined the firm in 1978.

Historically Don has been involved in a number of aggressively-litigated, high-profile divorce cases, though he now tries to take a more cooperate and collaborative approach to divorce. A substantial portion of his practice involves the mediation of child custody/visitation disputes and the mediation of financial and support issues.

Don is on the state panel of adoption attorneys for the Department of Children and Family Services and assists foster parents in adopting DCFS wards. He also works with parents adopting through adoption agencies, adopting privately, and re-adopting children from foreign countries.

Don was the first person in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit to be certified in all of the court-referred ADR programs: mediator of custody and visitation disputes, mediator of financial and support issues in divorce, mediator of major civil cases, and a chair-qualified arbitrator.

He has been actively involved in activities with the Illinois State Bar Association including: the Family Law Section Council (7 years); the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section Council (7 years, including being chair of the Council); the Committee on the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, and the Committee for Judi