Jean C. FrancissenTrials | Litigation | Appeals | Pre-Litigation Dispute Resolution
Email jean@dicksonlaw.net • Phone 630.897.8840 • Fax 630.897.8870
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Jean is a seasoned trial attorney, who is dedicated to serving the litigation needs of our clients. She has been an attorney for twenty-five years and tried cases before a wide range of tribunals throughout Illinois and California. Jean’s practice focuses on trust and estate disputes and commercial litigation. She draws upon both her background in finance and her experience working with estate planning and tax attorneys to provide holistic and practical representation for our clients.
Jean’s trust and estate practice includes complicated and contested probate matters. She has represented numerous executors, administrators, trustees, heirs and beneficiaries in will contests, breach of fiduciary duty cases, undue influence and fraud claims, accounting actions and countless other matters related to decedent’s estates.
Her commercial litigation practice encompasses a wide array of cases arising from real property and business disputes, including partition actions, actions to quiet title, business dissolutions, business torts, covenants not to compete, breach of contract actions, landlord-tenant disputes, shareholder oppression suits and mechanic’s liens.
Jean offers pragmatic advice designed to attain the most favorable results for her clients, whether that involves the rigorous pursuit of settlement or aggressive prosecution or defense of formal court proceedings and appeals. Although Jean gets enormous satisfaction from obtaining the best possible outcome for all of her clients, she is especially gratified by those cases that give her the opportunity to correct grave injustices. She has successfully recovered millions of dollars in property and estates from attorneys, agents and other fiduciaries who violated their fiduciary duties, exerted undue influence or otherwise improperly procured the assets of vulnerable individuals, most were elderly and many of whom were suffering from dementia and other debilitating physical and mental conditions.
Jean’s passion for the courtroom and her pursuit of justice began in law school, where she worked as a Judicial Extern for the Honorable Charles Legge in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California and as an Intern with the Juvenile Division of the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. After graduating from law school, Jean went into private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area, focusing on the representation of health care professionals in disciplinary proceedings before state and federal regulatory agencies.
In 2003, Jean left the sunshine state and returned to her home state of Illinois to practice law, shifting her focus to trust and estate disputes and commercial litigation. She has been variously active in the Boy Scouts, the Predator Rugby Club, the St. Charles North High School Boosters Club, and grass roots local and national political movements. She lives in her home town of St. Charles, Illinois, where she and her husband are raising three sons.
Jean’s trust and estate practice includes complicated and contested probate matters. She has represented numerous executors, administrators, trustees, heirs and beneficiaries in will contests, breach of fiduciary duty cases, undue influence and fraud claims, accounting actions and countless other matters related to decedent’s estates.
Her commercial litigation practice encompasses a wide array of cases arising from real property and business disputes, including partition actions, actions to quiet title, business dissolutions, business torts, covenants not to compete, breach of contract actions, landlord-tenant disputes, shareholder oppression suits and mechanic’s liens.
Jean offers pragmatic advice designed to attain the most favorable results for her clients, whether that involves the rigorous pursuit of settlement or aggressive prosecution or defense of formal court proceedings and appeals. Although Jean gets enormous satisfaction from obtaining the best possible outcome for all of her clients, she is especially gratified by those cases that give her the opportunity to correct grave injustices. She has successfully recovered millions of dollars in property and estates from attorneys, agents and other fiduciaries who violated their fiduciary duties, exerted undue influence or otherwise improperly procured the assets of vulnerable individuals, most were elderly and many of whom were suffering from dementia and other debilitating physical and mental conditions.
Jean’s passion for the courtroom and her pursuit of justice began in law school, where she worked as a Judicial Extern for the Honorable Charles Legge in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California and as an Intern with the Juvenile Division of the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. After graduating from law school, Jean went into private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area, focusing on the representation of health care professionals in disciplinary proceedings before state and federal regulatory agencies.
In 2003, Jean left the sunshine state and returned to her home state of Illinois to practice law, shifting her focus to trust and estate disputes and commercial litigation. She has been variously active in the Boy Scouts, the Predator Rugby Club, the St. Charles North High School Boosters Club, and grass roots local and national political movements. She lives in her home town of St. Charles, Illinois, where she and her husband are raising three sons.
ADMISSIONS
- State Bar of Illinois, 1993
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, 2010
- U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Judicial Circuit, 2010
- State Bar of California, 1992
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, 1992
Practice Areas
- Trials
- Litigation
- Appeals
- Pre-litigation dispute resolution
Education / degrees
- University of California, Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco, California 1992 J.D.
- St. Mary’s University, Institute on World Legal Problems, Innsbruck, Austria, 1990
- University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1988, B.S. in Finance with High Honor
Professional affiliations / memberships
- Illinois State Bar Association
- Kane County Bar Association
lectures & Presentations
Jean has presented lectures on probate litigation to attorneys, accountants, CPAs, enrolled agents, certified financial planners and trust officers, administrators and managers.
publications
Jean has published articles on Probate Litigation through the National Business Institute.