Jim Jerue focuses his practice on start-up and early stage financings, mergers and acquisitions, contract negotiation, and providing counsel to company executives and their boards of directors. He represents businesses from their beginnings through initial financing, growth initiatives, subsequent financing, and ultimate liquidity. While a large portion of his practice is centered in the technology space, Jim also represents entrepreneurs who seek to purchase, operate, and grow established businesses in areas such as marketing, packaging, manufacturing, and distribution.
Jim also provides general counsel services related to business transition, employment issues, partnership and LLC agreements, and securities matters. His general counsel clients include professional service firms, health care providers and payors, retailers, and outsourced business service providers.
A presence in Chicago’s start-up community, Jim leads the firm’s relationship with and sponsorship of Hyde Park Angels, the most active angel investment organization in the Midwest. He serves as a mentor at the Food Foundry, a food start-up accelerator housed at Chicago’s Tech & Entrepreneurship Center, has advised at the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and has served as a mentor at the business accelerator Techstars Chicago.
Prior to joining the firm, Jim was a partner in the Business and Finance Group at HMB Legal Counsel, a well-established, corporate-focused law firm based in Chicago, Illinois.
Jim was named a “Leading Lawyer” for Closely and Privately Held Business Law and Securities and Venture Finance Law in 2025 and the three years immediately preceding by Leading Lawyers magazine. He was named an Illinois “Super Lawyer” from 2010 to 2012 and from 2014 to 2017 for Business and Corporate Law by Super Lawyers magazine. Red Rocket listed Jim as one of “Chicago's Best Lawyers for Startups” in 2012.
University of California at Los Angeles, School of Law (1982)
Northwestern University B.A., American History (1979)
Illinois (1982)
Chicago Bar Association, Member
Business Law Committee, Former Chair
Subcommittee on Non-Corporate Business Entities, Former Chair (for six years)
Subcommittee on Private Equity, Former Co-Chair (for three years)
American Bar Association, Business Law Section, Committee on Partnerships and Unincorporated Business Organizations, Executive Committee, Former Head and Former Program Chair
Illinois Secretary of State, Corporation Law Advisory Committee, Former Member
Food Foundry, Mentor
Leads the firm’s relationship with and sponsorship of Hyde Park Angels, an angel investment organization affiliated with the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business
Chicago Business Accelerator Techstars Chicago (formerly Excelerate Labs), Former Mentor
University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Former Advisor
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