Mark T. Wakenight graduated from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1988 and returned home to the Chicago area. For the next twelve (12) years he represented clients in many different areas of law including bankruptcy, criminal defense, human rights, personal injury, property damage, real estate, traffic, license reinstatement, adoption, probate, guardianship, paternity, divorce, etc. When Bartley F. Goldberg, a classmate from the University of Chicago, was looking for a litigator to join his practice, Mark joined Mr. Goldberg in his Lincoln Park Office. The pair later created the Law Offices of Goldberg & Wakenight and thereafter opened an Oak Park Office. It was then that Mark began to refine his thinking about the type of clients he wanted to represent.
"By the time I opened Wakenight & Associates, P.C. in Oak Park, it was clear that I was most comfortable representing divorce and family law clients, and that if I wanted to improve as a lawyer, I had to pursue these areas of law wholeheartedly. I could not hope to become a good divorce and family law attorney by representing clients with other types of problems."
"As my divorce and family law business grew, I soon had more clients than I could handle, and I began to hire like-minded Associates to represent the additional clients. This made the process better still, because now I had colleagues with whom I could exchange ideas, strategies, and information and my office has been growing ever since." "We still get occasional requests to represent clients in other types of cases, but we do not accept any case outside family law," Wakenight says. "All we do is family law, all day, every day. That's the philosophy behind our company."
The most important cases in family law are custody cases, the stakes are high, the pressure is intense and emotions run high. Over the years Mark T. Wakenight has successfully won custody for many clients. "It's not just a matter of knowing and applying the facts to the law it's also a matter of coaching a distraught mother or father through the most difficult time of their lives. Just like I took these cases now my Associates capably handle these difficult cases, but with much more help from colleagues and myself, where necessary."
In handling custody cases Mark T. Wakenight became eligible to serve as an attorney for children in custody cases and he has been certified by the Honorable Judge Moshe Jacobius, Presiding Judge of the Cook County Domestic Relations Division, to represent children in custody cases in the circuit court of Cook County Illinois since January 21, 2001.
Areas of Practice: Dedicated Solely to Divorce and Family Law including but not limited to Divorce, Paternity, Custody, Guardianship, Removal, Child Support, Maintenance, Property Division, Visitation, Parenting Time, Post-Decree Litigation, Grandparents Rights, Etc.
