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Emanuel C. Welch
Emanuel C. Welch
Partner
ecwelch@sanchezdh.com

Born: Chicago IL, 1971

Emanuel "Chris" Welch

Chris has served as a Partner at the law firm of Sanchez Daniels & Hoffman LLP since July 2007.

Chris has served on the Proviso Township High Schools District 209 Board of Education since November 7, 2001, and he has been President of the Board since April 2003. Chris is credited with balancing the District's budget for the first time in over a decade all while leading the effort to create the first ever suburban based magnet high school, the Proviso Math and Science Academy.

He also serves as legal counsel for various school districts and municipalities, and he is a member of the Illinois Council of School Attorneys. In November 2005, Chris was the lead attorney in the case of Roxanne Brown v. Bellwood School District 88 in which the Illinois Appellate Court ruled that local school boards have the right to declare vacancies and fill those vacancies.

In 2008, Chris led the successful defense of a civil rights case involving 12 Town of Cicero police officers in which six of them were found completely not guilty.

In 2010, Chris argued two appellate court cases on behalf of municipal clients, one before the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, and the other before the Illinois Appellate Court.

Chris and the firm also do public finance/bond work for towns and municipalities, and Chris is a certified administrative hearing officer with experiencing serving as the hearing officer in code enforcement court.

Chris has received the Operation Uplift Hometown Dreamweaver Award (January 2005), the prestigious PLCCA Image Award (June 2006), the Village of Hillside Chairman's Award for his contributions to Human Rights issues (January 2007), the Man of the Year Award from the Proviso Township Dream Team (May 2009), and in August 2010 Chris was named one of the top 40 Game Changers under the age of 40 by Black Enterprise Magazine and WVON AM-1690.