Kristen E. Prinz

Kristen Prinz is an employment lawyer, business counselor, and founder of The Prinz Law Firm. She focuses on providing clients with strategic and cost-effective legal and business planning solutions to assist business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals in building and realizing their potential.

Ms. Prinz empowers business owners to launch, grow, and thrive in their businesses by developing policies that advance their business needs, creating agreements that protect their client and employee relationships, and advising businesses on utilizing employment practices that foster a positive workplace culture. Her pragmatic approach helps clients limit risk in recruiting, hiring, onboarding, assessing, and separating employees.

Ms. Prinz is also a strong advocate for employees, including a variety of executives and physicians. She helps negotiate employment contracts and severance packages for professionals, and has litigated complex claims of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, as well as contract disputes, wage claims, and whistleblower claims.

The Experience To Protect Your Business

Ms. Prinz works closely with clients to ensure that their agreements, contracts, and written policies and procedures reflect the culture of their business and limit liability. She also assists businesses in implementing employment practices and training staff. Her business-side practice includes but is not limited to the following areas:

• Drafting operating, shareholder, purchase, employment, and other agreements
• Business counseling
• Negotiation coaching
• Workplace trainings
• Workplace investigations
• Workplace audits
• Advising on workplace culture and climate

As a business owner herself, Ms. Prinz understands that employees are an asset with immeasurable value and risk. Her focus is on counseling clients to minimize risk and maximize growth. However, she understands that no amount of planning can fully eliminate risk.

When Organization, Collaboration, and Strategy Are Not Enough, MS. Prinz Is an Aggressive Litigator Who Has Represented Clients In:

• Wage claims
• Discrimination claims
• Retaliation claims
• Sarbanes-Oxley Whistleblower claims
• Shareholder disputes
• Contract disputes
• Non-compete and non-solicitation disputes
• Defamation claims
• General employment and business-related claims

Ms. Prinz has litigated employment law matters on behalf of both employers and employees before state and federal courts at the trial and appellate level. She also possesses extensive experience litigating before administrative agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR), and the Cook County Human Rights Commission, as well as various arbitration panels.

Ms. Prinz has served as first chair in multiple litigation matters and has obtained multi-million-dollar verdicts for her clients. Ms. Prinz has also successfully represented clients in appellate matters.

Community Involvement

MS. Prinz Is Involved in Many Professional and Philanthropic Organizations Including:

• The Chicago Network
• The International Women’s Forum
• National Sleep Foundation, Board Member
• New Moms, Board Member
• The Chicago Club
• The Economic Club of Chicago
• The Executives Club of Chicago

Ms. Prinz has served as co-chair on the Chicago Bar Association’s Alliance for Women Executive Committee and the Illinois State Bar Association’s Women and the Law Committee. She has been consistently selected by her peers as a Super Lawyer, a Leading Lawyer, and a U.S. News and World Reports Best Lawyer.

Education & Professional Memberships

Ms. Prinz received her Juris Doctorate degree from IIT Chicago Kent College of Law with an emphasis in international and comparative law and graduated with honors, cum laude. She earned a B.A. degree in English from the University of Iowa, Iowa City. Ms. Prinz has been recognized among the “Most Influential Women Lawyers in Chicago” and as a “Notable Woman in Law” by Crain's Chicago Business.

Her Professional and Bar Association Memberships Include:

• Chicago Bar Association, 2006
• American Bar Association, 2006
• Illinois State Bar Association, 2006