Becky Hurley is the Principal of Becky Bair Hurley, P.C., which she founded in 1994. She specializes in commercial real estate law, with an emphasis on acquisitions, zoning, and leasing. Before starting her own firm she was with the law firm Gardner, Carton & Douglas in Chicago for 10 years, from 1984-1994, first as an associate and later as a partner.

During her professional career Ms. Hurley has represented a major teaching hospital in the acquisition, rezoning and development of a 3-acre near-north Chicago site for the $600 million redevelopment of its facilities. Issues included zoning, construction, community relations, vertical ownership models and traffic mitigation. She has also represented many developers, including the developers of 280-acre $21 million tract in Glenview, negotiating with that village on zoning, annexation and impact mitigation.

Becky Hurley is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law (1984) where she served on the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, and a graduate of Colgate University, where she received her BA International Relations/Political Science in 1981.

Ms. Hurley was a co-author with Northwestern University Law Professor Stephen B. Presser of Saving God's Republic: the Jurisprudence of Samuel Chase, published by the University of Illinois Law Review in 1984, and was a legal writing instructor at Loyola University School of Law from 1985-86.

After serving on a number of professional bar associations, including as Chair of the Real Estate Committee of the Young Lawyers Section of the Chicago Bar Association, then-Recorder of Deeds Carol Moseley-Braun asked her to serve on the Blue Ribbon Committee to Reform the Office of Cook County Recorder of Deeds/Torrens Office, then elevated Ms. Hurley to Co-chair of the Torrens Abolition Subcommittee. Through 1989-1993 Ms. Hurley led the Subcommittee through an extensive review of the antiquated Torrens system in Cook County, resulting in the abolition of the Torrens office.

Becky Hurley has devoted herself to public service in her personal life as well as her professional life. Having served as a board member of the Rogers Park Montessori School in Chicago from 1994-96, she was ready to begin serving the Village of Winnetka and its schools when she and her family moved there in 1996.

In 1998 Ms. Hurley was selected to serve on the Executive Committee of the Winnetka Caucus as Communications Chair. The following year she chaired the Village Platform subcommittee of the Caucus, where she worked with her subcommittee interviewing Village Council members, drafting a village-wide survey, and creating a platform that was unanimously adopted by the Caucus and the Village.

In 2000 Becky Hurley was appointed by the Village President to the Winnetka Plan Commission, where she was able to employ her experience in real estate development and land use. While serving on the Plan Commission Ms. Hurley suggested adoption of what would become the HAIS or Historic and Architectural Impact Study, a study of the historical or architectural impact of proposed residential and commercial demolitions, patterned after the impact studies of traffic, wind, parking etc. commonly done for proposed commercial development.

In 2001 Becky Hurley was elected to the Winnetka Public Schools District 36 School Board after being interviewed and slated as a candidate by the Winnetka Caucus. She was reelected in 2005 for a term which will end in 2009. During her service on the board, Ms. Hurley was selected by her fellow board members to serve the following roles:

• Vice President (2001-02)
• President (2002- 05)
• Policy Committee Chair (2002-present)
• Board Negotiations Team for 4-year Teachers' Contract (2004-05)
• Spokesman for Board during 2003 referendum campaign
• Chair of Superintendent Search Committee (2005-06)

Ms. Hurley (front row, far right) with administrators and board members of the Winnetka Public Schools. Superintendent Becky van der Bogert is to Ms. Hurley's right.

Dr. Rebecca van der Bogert (L)
and Becky Hurley discuss
the Yearbook Voices for Democracy:
Struggles and Celebrations of
Transformational Leaders

Ms. Hurley has written a professional article about her experience as School Board President titled Learning on the Job: The Education of a School Board President in Shared Leadership. The article appeared as a chapter of Voices for Democracy: Struggles and Celebrations of Transformational Leaders edited Paul Kelleher and Rebecca van der Bogert. That volume is the 105th edition of the venerable Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education.

For over six years Becky Hurley has been an active board member of the Winnetka Historical Society, having joined in 2000. The WHS has been deeply engaged in real estate and land issues, and Ms. Hurley has been able to use her professional expertise to the benefit of that community group. Specifically, as Chair of the Administration Committee of the WHS Ms. Hurley was instrumental in working through many of the real estate and land use issues for the WHS as the Society (1) acquired, moved and restored the oldest continuously occupied structure in Cook County (the Schmidt Burnham Log House, built ca 1837 and recently selected for the National Register of Historic Places and (2) overcame strong opposition and a neighborhood lawsuit to buy and restore a pre-Civil War residence as the Society museum and headquarters.

Ms. Hurley is also a longtime member of the League of Women Voters for Winnetka Northfield and Kenilworth, having served since 2000.

Becky Bair Hurley was born in 1959 at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, where her father, a career officer in the United States Marine Corps, was then stationed. She has been married for 23 years to Christopher T. Hurley, whom she met while they were both students at Colgate University. They are the parents of twins Matt and Dan and daughter Katie.

Becky Hurley is a member of two active book clubs and plays tennis.

Chris and Becky Hurley