E. Lynn Grayson, a partner with the boutique environmental law firm Nijman·Franzetti LLP, will start her term as the 2021-2022 president of the Chicago Bar Association at its 148th annual meeting. The event begins at noon on June 24, 2021.

The CBA, founded in 1874, is the oldest and most active metropolitan bar association in the United States. Most of its 17,000 voluntary members are lawyers and judges from Cook County and other Illinois counties. 

Says Grayson of her upcoming term: “While this is certainly not the year I had planned as CBA president, I’m 100% convinced I’m in the right place at the right time. Big in-person events and foreign travel won’t happen this year given the pandemic, but we have plans for another great year for our members.”

Grayson says this year the CBA will celebrate and challenge its members with programs, special initiatives and community outreach. “The CBA plans to celebrate our history, care for and support our members and the public, and challenge each other to make the CBA the bar association we want, need and deserve.”

The CBA will launch a diversity, inclusion, culture and equity initiative this year co-chaired by Illinois Appellate Court Justice Michael B. Hyman and Nina Fain, a member of the CBA’s Board of Managers. New CBA programs this year will address topics such as hate crimes and violence, LGBTQ rights, law firm financial sustainability, and expanding public legal education, among others. The CBA will also review its bylaws and mission, and a strategic planning committee will look to the future as the CBA approaches its 150th anniversary.

Upon moving her law practice to Chicago from Springfield, Grayson joined the CBA. She first served on the CBA’s Alliance for Women, which she co-chaired. CBA members later elected Grayson to the Board of Managers, the Executive Committee, and to the roles of secretary, second vice president, first vice president and president. She also serves on the board of directors of the Chicago Bar Foundation, the CBA’s charitable arm.

Grayson is the 11th woman lawyer to serve as president of the CBA. She is also the second president from Nijman·Franzetti LLP. Her law partner, Jennifer T. Nijman, was the 2002-2003 president. No other law firm has two women CBA presidents. One other firm has two CBA presidents, both of whom are men.

Nijman·Franzetti LLP is celebrating 13 years as a women-owned environmental law boutique. Successful and reputable environmental boutique law firms are rare, even nationally. As a women-owned environmental boutique, the firm attracts Fortune 100 A-list clients with important and complex matters. Nijman·Franzetti’s competitors are the nation’s largest and most respected law firms.

Although the practice areas of Nijman·Franzetti LLP cover all aspects of environmental law, the firm is best known for environmental litigation and enforcement defense; permitting and compliance work; national environmental counsel support; site remediation and Superfund matters; and administrative proceedings.

Peers in Illinois and nationwide highly regard the firm’s four women partners for their experience, and they maintain an exceptional reputation in environmental law and related litigation. Each appears at or near the top of Illinois and national lists of the most respected environmental lawyers published by Chambers & Partners, Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers and Leading Lawyers. Recent peer surveys by Leading Lawyers name Grayson and her partners Nijman and Susan M. Franzetti among the Top 10 environmental lawyers in Illinois.