Howard M. Bain
howard@esb-law.com
Howard M. Bain was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1948. He attended the University of Illinois, at Urbana Illinois. He graduated with a B.S in Journalism (Honors) News Editorial in 1971. Mr. Bain also worked as a Rhetoric Instructor on a special Inner City student project at the University of Illinois in 1972.
Mr. Bain attended Northern Illinois University College of Law in DeKalb, Illinois and graduated in 1978 in the top of his class. He was also invited to the Law Review but declined in order to represent military dischargees in administrative hearings. He was also admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1978. Additionally, Mr. Bain has also served as a bar examination tutor.
He was admitted to the District Court, Northern District of Illinois (June 1978). Also in 1978 he was admitted to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Bain was admitted to the Northern District of Illinois Trial Bar in 1982 and in 1983 he was accepted into the United States Tax Court.
Mr. Bain is a member the American Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association.
Mr. Bain is a partner in the law firm of EMALFARB, SWAN & BAIN and has practiced as a trial lawyer in the Federal and State Courts, representing clients in the areas of Business and Construction Corporate matters, Civil Rights Violations and Employment Discrimination. Additionally, he has appeared before the United States Railroad Retirement Board, Social Security Administration, Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, Illinois Industrial Commission, Illinois Department of Human Rights, Postal Service Arbitration Board, Merit Systems Protection Board and Army, Navy and Marine United States Military Discharge Review Boards. Mr. Bain’s firm practices mostly in the area of Construction law. The practice focuses on the construction contract process. Such matters as bid protest, lien and bond claim filings, in both State and Federal forums on the public works. His firm is engaged in arbitrations and litigation throughout the United States and Canada.
Mr. Bain pioneered in the area of consumer access to the legal profession by founding and managing the Legal*Shops in the Montgomery Ward Stores beginning in 1979. Most recently, Mr. Bain has launched the Lawyers In Other Cities program and website, which serves as an access point for both companies and individuals to use legal services in states other than their home state.
Mr. Bain has delivered and chaired a series of intensive workshop seminars for construction attorneys who provide services to NATIONAL LIEN & BOND CLAIM SYSTEMS, a National Construction trade association. The annual seminars have been ongoing since 1986. A representative seminar was titled The Construction Lawyer’s Smorgasbord: Material Suppliers and UCC, New AIA Contracts, Falling Buildings, and Minority Contractors. Topics included Material Suppliers and the UCC, AIA A201 – General Conditions of the Contract for Construction, the New B141 – Architect Owner Contract, Construction Failures: Rounding up the Usual Suspects, Minority Contractors: Jobs and the Law, Architecture, Bankruptcy and its Effect on Construction Litigation, Air Quality Litigation, Engineering Consultants, and Arbitration. Additionally, Mr. Bain periodically co-hosts seminars for construction professionals other than attorneys by providing round table seminars on national topics that are of current interest to the construction industry.
In 2006, Mr. Bain presented seminars in Beijing and Shanghai to Chinese attorneys on US law; specifically in the areas of Mechanics’ liens and bond claims. The seminars were presented in order to assist Chinese counsel in advising their clients who ship construction products into the United States. The seminars were designed to permit the state regulated Mechanics’ Lien and Bond Claim laws in the US to be accessed by Chinese companies from abroad.
Mr. Bain represents several Fortune 500 companies providing them services including Mechanics’ Liens, Bond Claims, Lien’s against Public Funds, Stop Notices and Miller Act Claims Filings and Complaints. Mr. Bain also acts as a General Counsel to NATIONAL LIEN & BOND CLAIM SYSTEMS, a trade association.