About

Mary Katherine Avery is a principal partner of Avery | Kill, LLC, where she concentrates her practice in family law. She has been named an Illinois Leading Lawyer ® and Illinois Super Lawyer ®.

Mary Katherine Avery is an experienced family law attorney with experience representing clients in all phases of family law issues, including but not limited to: pre-marriage and engagement financial planning consultation, premarital agreements, post nuptial agreements, custody and visitation matters, divorce and dissolution, trial practice and procedure in family law matters, maintenance (alimony) issues, parentage cases, adoption cases, property distribution, financial and business evaluations, retirement fund division, and legal separation agreements.

Mary Katherine works closely with accountants, forensic evaluators, and financial experts to determine and litigate the character and division of marital and non-marital assets. Mary Katherine devotes a significant portion of her practice to child custody and visitation issues. Mary Katherine has extensive experience in heavily-litigated custody matters, obtaining positive outcomes for clients at trial. Further, Mary Katherine has extensive experience negotiating and drafting parenting agreements, for joint and sole custody arrangements.

Mary Katherine routinely represents clients in custody and visitation disputes, supervised and unsupervised visitation issues, removal cases, orders of protection, allegations of abuse of a child, issues of substance abuse, and allegations of child endangerment. Mary Katherine Avery has litigated successfully issues of visitation, including but not limited to international visitation. (See appellate court opinion, in which Mary Katherine represented the litigant granted international visitation at the trial court level.) Mary Katherine works closely with custody evaluators and other professionals in the context of her representation of clients.

Mary Katherine graduated from the University of Michigan in 1989, and from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law in 1993. She has practiced in the field of family law exclusively. Mary Katherine is a member of the Women's Bar Association, Chicago Council of Lawyers, the Chicago Bar Association and the Illinois State Bar Association. Mary Katherine has spoken on the topic of orders of protection and domestic violence. She has experience in

• Representing clients in issues involving custody disputes
• Representing clients in support issues: child support and maintenance
• Determination of whether a property should be categorized as marital or non-marital, and successfully litigating these issues before the court
• Representing a parent who has been denied access to the children by the other parent
• Successful visitation litigation which protects the minor children from a parent who endangers them
• Representing clients in cases involving drug and alcohol issues and abuse
• Successfully litigating a father's custody petition, such that the father is granted custody of the child
• Working with forensic accountants and financial evaluators to determine a business' value
• Representing clients in order of protection matters
• Representing clients in removal cases
• Representing full-time homemakers and stay at home parents in securing rehabilitative or permanent maintenance
• Tracing assets and income, as well as dissipation
• UCCJA (and UCCJEA) litigation between states