Miner, Barnhill & Galland, PC

The firm today known as Miner, Barnhill & Galland started in 1971 when Judson Miner and Allison Davis, both recently having completed law school, decided to create a firm that would be racially integrated (a rarity in small firms at that time) and specialize in civil rights and community development law. Charles Barnhill joined the firm the following year, and George Galland in 1973. The partners bought and refurbished a neglected townhouse at 14 W. Erie St. in Chicago - in what was then an unfashionable area - a few blocks from Chicago's Michigan Avenue. That building remained the firm's home office for four decades while the surrounding neighborhood reversed its decline and gradually became part of the vibrant Near North Side of Chicago as it exists today. In 2016, MBG moved into modern new offices along the Chicago River at 325 N. LaSalle St.

From the very start, the firm found itself participating in some of the most exciting legal developments in the region. Within a year of the firm's founding, Judson Miner and Charles Barnhill were arguing an important case in the U.S. Supreme Court, and the firm was representing community organizations developing ambitious subsidized housing developments on Chicago's South Side. At the start of the 1980s, the firm became heavily involved in litigation under the Voting Rights Act, leading - among other victories - to a 1986 court decree that threw out the racially gerrymandered Chicago aldermanic map and led to Mayor Harold Washington obtaining a working majority in the Chicago City Council. Beginning in the late 1990s, the firm developed a practice focused on predatory lending, which led to some of the most significant consumer rights settlements in the nation's history. Additionally, the firm's environmental practice has flourished in recent years, as it has been our privilege to represent individuals and organizations, such as Sierra Club, in lawsuits to protect the environment, people and their property from pollution.

In 1988, Charles Barnhill moved to Madison, Wisconsin, and opened the firm's Madison office on Capitol Hill, overlooking Lake Monona. For a time, the firm maintained a third office in the Central Valley of California, which specialized in representing low-wage workers challenging wages and other abuses in the food packing and agricultural industries. While that office is now closed, the firm has continued its ongoing work challenging wage and hour abuses in several industries.

Various partners and associates of the firm have held public office or contributed to public service in bar associations and other activities. In the mid-1980s, Judson Miner served for nearly four years as Corporation Counsel of the City of Chicago under Mayor Washington and his successor, while George Galland served as General Attorney of the Chicago Park District.

Locations	No. of Attorneys
Chicago, IL	13
Madison, WI	4

Practice Areas	No. of Attorneys
Data Privacy	2
Environmental and Land Use	7
Government Contracts	1
Labor & Employment	6
Litigation	4
Litigation - General (consumer)	8
Litigation - Labor & Employment	4
Litigation - Securities Litigation	2
Municipal Law	6
Real Estate	1