James A Wright Email & Phone Number

Daley Center - 50 West Washington St., Chicago, IL

333 West Wacker Drive, Suite 1420, Chicago, IL 60606

My practice areas include: minority/women-owned and disadvantaged business enterprise certifications and defense; procurement law; regulatory reviews and compliance; work place ethics, investigations, and litigation; negotiations and dispute resolution; and government relations.

Practice areas include: Workplace ethics investigations and solutions; regulatory compliance, organizational management; contract drafting, review and negotiations; government relations; dispute resolution; minority/women business enterprise certification and negotiations; tax consulting; and white collar criminal defense. Adjunct Professor of Criminal.

Chicago & Springfield, IL

Oversaw the administration and operation of the largest State agency tasked with ensuring accountability and integrity in Illinois State government. The OEIG fairly investigated complaints of fraud, waste, mismanagement, corruption, and ethics violations by employees and vendors of the Offices of the Illinois Governor, Lieutenant Governor, approximately 40.

Downers Grove, Illinois

First Inspector General appointed to the Illinois Tollway and tasked with promoting integrity and accountability in the day-to-day operations of the Tollway by rooting out and fairly investigating allegations of fraud, misconduct, corruption, illegal acts, and inefficiencies by Board members, executive management, and all other employees, contractors.

Chicago, Illinois

Practice areas included municipal law, administrative law, government relations, dispute resolution, contract drafting and negotiations, minority/women business enterprise (M/WBE) certification and negotiations, and commercial litigation. Extensive experience in state and federal courts. Represented businesses and government entities before local, state.

Chicago, Illinois

Managed the affairs of the governing board of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), a $4.6 billion school system and the 2nd largest employer in Illinois with 46,000 employees, 601 schools and 436,000 students. Represented the Board on CPS initiatives and provided leadership & oversight on various projects throughout the organization to ensure successful.

Hartford, CT

Manager – Post-Merger Integration – Hamilton-Sundstrand Division – 7/99 to 11/99Team Leader – Strategic Planning Division – 3/99 to 7/99Manager – Corporate Quality Division – 11/98 to 2/99

Chicago, IL

* Supervised 3-5 attorneys in representing the interests of the Chicago Public Schools in litigation.* Developed policies and directives relating to labor and employment matters, contracts, commercial transactions, and the Board’s Ethics policy.* Developed and implemented CPS' first supplier/vendor “debarment” policy.

Chicago, IL

* Investigations Management – Coordinated and supervised teams of federal agents in gathering evidence to litigate an average 30 investigations of corporate and individual federal law violations.* Negotiations – Negotiated the pretrial settlement of over 30 cases.* Litigation – Successfully tried numerous federal cases, including complicated tax fraud cases.

Washington, D.C.

Successfully litigated federal tax cases, including a $6 million tax evasion case; managed over 75 investigations of tax violations; and negotiated over 50 pretrial settlements.

Washington, D.C.

* Prepared directives and policies relating to banking procedures and securities offerings.* Presided over hearings and settlements conferences concerning employees’ EEOC claims.

Chicago, IL

Conducted over 30 audits of real estate and financial institution clients with a staff of 2-5 people per audit. Promoted to Senior Auditor after 2 years.

B.S., Accounting & Economics

Activities and Societies: Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

Master Of Business Administration (Mba), Business Administration, Management And Operations

Juris Doctor, Business Administration And Management, General

Activities and Societies: Comments Editor, University of San Francisco Law Review President - Black Law Students Association - 1987.