“Employment law is always evolving and it touches every aspect of a business. I serve as a practical guide and counselor to help clients stay ahead of the change, overcome obstacles and find their path to success.”
Jeri is a Partner in HMB’s Business & Finance Group and leads the firm’s Employment practice. She helps clients resolve employment issues and implement best practices to better focus their business and achieve their personal goals.
As a partner to both employers and employees, Jeri’s clients include individuals, executives, small businesses, charitable organizations, private equity firms and multinational corporations. She provides individualized, practical guidance to help clients address their immediate employment issues, mitigate risk and ensure they are both legally compliant and using current best practices to meet their legal needs. Jeri serves as their legal guide when drafting and negotiating employment agreements from offer letters and equity agreements to transitional contracts.
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With over 30 years of experience in employment law, Jeri regularly helps clients overcome a host of challenges. She helps management evaluate the practical and legal aspects of employee agreements, compensation agreements and restrictive covenants. Likewise, she helps executives negotiate their desired employment agreements. Jeri leverages her commercial litigation experience to identify potential discrimination claims and day-to-day business and legal challenges. She is especially skilled at educating business managers and supervisors on current developments in employment law, including diversity, equity and inclusion, disability issues, discrimination and harassment concerns, and conducting proper workplace investigations, among others.
Jeri is a recognized leader in her field, having received many distinctions including Crain’s Chicago Business Notable Women Lawyers. She has been named to Leading Lawyers for 10 consecutive years and to Illinois Super Lawyers for 12 years. Jeri also has been recognized as one of Illinois’ top 50 Women Lawyers and one of Illinois’ top 100 Lawyers overall.
Finding a Path to Success
Clients rely on Jeri to help them find their path to success, regardless of the difficulties in their circumstances. They benefit from Jeri’s 30+ years of experience in commercial litigation and the guiding perspective it adds to their day-to-day employment matters. Most of all, clients value Jeri’s compassion and decisiveness. They depend upon her practical guidance and counsel to ensure they have the necessary tools to confidentially address their employment issues.
Education
- University of Illinois College of Law, J.D.
- Marquette University, M.A.
- Marquette University, B.A.
Admissions
- Illinois
- Federal Trial Bar, Northern District of Illinois
- U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Illinois
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois
- U.S. District Court, Central District of Illinois
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of Indiana
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
- U.S. Tax Court
Honors
- Crain’s Chicago Business Notable Women Lawyers, 2020
- Leading Lawyers, 2011-2023
- Illinois Super Lawyers, 2009-2023
- American Jurisprudence Award in Products Liability
- Rickerts Scholarship for Academic Excellence
News
- Congratulations to HMB Attorneys Named to 2023 Leading LawyersFebruary 21, 2023
Congratulations to Jeralyn H. Baran, Keith H. Berk, Aaron L.Hammer, Jeffrey H. Hechtman, James L. Jerue and Jeffrey A. Zaluda for being named 2023 Leading Lawyers! Only lawyers who are most often recommended by their peers and later approved by the Leading Lawyers Advisory Board are selected.
- Congratulations to HMB Attorneys Selected to 2023 Super Lawyers and Rising Stars ListsJanuary 30, 2023
HMB is proud to announce that Jeralyn H. Baran, Richard M. Horwood, Jeffrey A. Zaluda and Scott M. Kaplan have been selected to the 2023 Illinois Super Lawyers and Rising Stars list. Congratulations to our team!
- HMB Welcomes Jeralyn H. Baran, Expanding its Employment Law PracticeJuly 7, 2022
HMB Legal Counsel is pleased to welcome Jeralyn (“Jeri”) H. Baran who joins the firm as a Partner in its Business & Finance group. Jeri will lead HMB’s growing Employment Law practice.
blog
- Illinois Supreme Court’s Latest BIPA Decision: Violations Occur with Each Collection or DisclosureMarch 6, 2023
HMB recently issued a Client Alert following the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision in Tims v. Black Horse Carrier, 2023 IL 127801, where the Court held that all Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) actions would be governed by a 5-year statute of limitations period. Since then, the Illinois Supreme Court has dealt another blow to Illinois BIPA defendants. Cothron v.…
- Can Separation Agreements still include Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Provisions?March 1, 2023
On February 21, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a decision which found that employers who included confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions in separation agreements of nonmanagerial employees were engaging in unfair labor practices prohibited by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). This decision will have a far-reaching effect, impacting the use of these common provisions upon which many…
- Illinois Employers Face New Paid Sick Leave ObligationsFebruary 23, 2023
Illinois will join Chicago and Cook County in requiring employers to provide paid sick leave to their employees. Once signed by Governor Pritzker, the Paid Leave for All Workers Act will become effective on January 1, 2024. The General Assembly declared that it was “in the public policy interests of the State for all working Illinoisans to have some paid…
- Illinois Supreme Court Settles BIPA Statute of Limitations DebateFebruary 14, 2023
Background on BIPA Illinois employers collecting biometric information for timekeeping purposes have been assaulted by class action lawsuits brought under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Typically, plaintiffs in these actions seek five years of damages for claims that employers collected biometric information through fingerprinting or face screening without issuing a public policy declaring the use and retention of…
- New Changes to Illinois Employment Law Effective January 1, 2023December 29, 2022
Is your business ready for Illinois in 2023? With the start of each new year come new employment laws in Illinois. 2023 is no different. Here are three changes to Illinois employment law. State Minimum Wage Increases to $13.00 per hour Illinois is moving slowly towards a $15.00 per hour minimum wage across the state. In Chicago, the minimum wage…
