Steve Costello

I was raised in Dundee, Illinois. My father was a bankruptcy lawyer and my mother a nurse. I am the youngest of my parents' four children. I went to Dundee schools until High School when the family moved to Elgin and I attended Larkin High School. I then went on to college at the University of Northern Iowa where I received a bachelor's degree in accounting. I passed the CPA exam. I went right from college to law school where I graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northern Illinois University School of Law. After law school I immediately joined my father's practice in 1984. My father was a bankruptcy lawyer and a Chapter 7 trustee. Bankruptcy was not quite as prevalent then and my father's practice was probably half bankruptcy and half general practice including, traffic, DUI, divorce, real estate and other matters. Regardless of the general part of the practice, my father had a reputation for being the bankruptcy guru. As bankruptcy grew in the years after I joined the firm, we reduced the other areas of practice. My father passed in 1994 and my practice has remained almost exclusively bankruptcy with some necessary real estate practice. I have extensive experience in chapter 7, 11 and 13 cases mostly as a debtor's attorney. Also I have substantial experience is almost every kind of bankruptcy litigation including avoidance cases and dichargeability cases.