Stephen D. Helm is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law. He was an Editor of the Illinois Law Forum and an honor graduate. His undergraduate work was in Business Administration at Millikin University. While at Millikin, he was captain of the varsity basketball team and a four-year varsity baseball player.
Upon graduating from the University of Illinois College of Law, he was admitted to the Illinois Bar. He was selected as a U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General and served four years during the Vietnam War as a Navy lawyer in Newport, Rhode Island, the Naval Base in Guam, and in International Law at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. After being honorably discharged from the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander, he commenced his private practice in Naperville, where he has practiced law since 1973.
Mr. Helm’s primary area of practice has been in eminent domain cases, either defending property owners or representing various governmental entities. Additionally, he has litigated, or is in the process of litigating, complex corporate, partnership, and contract cases in the state courts, the federal district court, and before arbitration panels. He has defended newspaper publishers and newscasters in libel and defamation litigation. Mr. Helm has litigated products liability cases, personal injury cases, and hospital negligence cases. Mr. Helm has also represented trust beneficiaries in litigation involving disputes with trust administrators, and has represented property owners in real estate tax appeal matters.
Mr. Helm has litigated cases in the Illinois Counties of DuPage, Will, Cook, Winnebago, Kane, McHenry, Kendall, LaSalle, Ogle, Stevenson, and DeWitt, as well as within the federal district court in Chicago. He has also litigated cases before the Illinois Pollution Control Board, before arbitration panels in Illinois and in Tennessee, and eminent domain cases outside of Illinois.
With respect to his condemnation practice, Mr. Helm served as chief land acquisition counsel for the DuPage County Forest Preserve District in such major acquisitions as the 257-acre Danada Farms in Wheaton, the 140-acre Johnson Farm in Downers Grove, the Elmhurst Country Club and Brookwood Country Clubs in the Wood Dale/Addison area, the large Springbrook Forest Preserve south of Naperville, as well as other acquisitions in nearly every forest preserve throughout the County. Mr. Helm also represented the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority in many of its major eminent domain cases that were part of its Interstate 355 acquisitions. He has also represented various park districts, library districts, school districts, agencies of the County of DuPage, and various municipalities including Elgin, Wheaton, and Elmhurst.
Since 1998, Mr. Helm’s condemnation practice has focused on representing property owners against governmental bodies. Mr. Helm tried over 100 eminent domain jury trials in various counties throughout Illinois, and in September 2007 was lead counsel representing a private property owner, obtaining a verdict in excess of $31,000,000 in a case in which the condemnor’s offer was $14,000,000. Mr. Helm has argued numerous appeals in eminent domain cases before appellate courts and the Illinois Supreme Court.
Mr. Helm has published various articles in land use and eminent domain publications and has served as a presenter in various professional seminars. He has also served as an expert witness in eminent domain litigation.
Mr. Helm has been admitted to practice by the Illinois Supreme Court, United States Supreme Court, United States Court of Military Appeals, United States Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Florida Supreme Court, and has been admitted as pro hac vice counsel in Mississippi and Arkansas.
Education
J.D., University of Illinois, 1968
Admitted
State of Illinois 1968; U.S. Court of Military Appeals, 1969; U.S. Supreme Court, 1972;
U.S. District Court, N.D., 1977; State of Florida, 1982
Principal Areas of Practice
Eminent Domain Litigation, Land Use and Real Estate Litigation