Rieff Schramm & Kanter

Attorneys

History

Consistent with the concentration of the firm, Mr. Guttman continues to focus his law practice in the areas of real estate assessments, property tax incentives and tax exemptions. He has extensive experience with representing a variety of property owners including multi-unit residential, commercial and industrial properties, as well as downtown Chicago office buildings.

Mr. Guttman has considerable experience with litigation including acting as associate counsel before the Circuit Court of Cook County on a number of cases which challenged the constitutionality of the assessment methodology applied by taxing officials. His trial experience includes one of the first tax objection cases to be heard in the Circuit Court under the amended 1995 Revenue Act which abolished the antiquated constructive fraud standard.

Mr. Guttman co-authored two chapters, "Tax Objection Complaints" in the book, "Real Estate Taxation" and "Real Estate Tax Considerations" in the book "Residential Real Estate Transactions" for the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education. He also co-authored the article "Five Things Every Attorney Should Know About Appealing Their Client's Real Estate Taxes" appearing in the January, 2004 edition of the "CBA Record". He was the former Legislative Liaison, Chairman of the Assessment and Appeals Sub-committee and is currently the Chairman of the Chicago Bar Association's Real Estate Taxation Committee. Mr. Guttman has lectured before the Chicago Bar Association's continuing legal education seminar entitled, "Real Estate Taxation: An Overview for the Non-Specialist" in 2005 and has acted as Special Assistant State's Attorney on behalf of Maria Pappas, Cook County Treasurer, as Trustee of the Indemnity Fund in the defense of a claim against the Indemnity Fund. He also served on the Cook County Treasurer, Maria Pappas' Joint Committee for the automation of the Illinois Transfer Tax Form, which is responsible for the design and future implementation of internet accessible filing, fee collection and transmission of the State of Illinois transfer tax information for all real estate transactions in Illinois. He received his B.A. degree from the University of Illinois and his J.D. from The John Marshall Law School.