The company is not on the table
Business Valuation & Division Lawyers in Chicago, IL
You built the enterprise. The dissolution should not dismantle it.
Chicago · Cook County · All of Illinois
I.The Matter
When a marriage ends and a company is involved, the business becomes the case. Arami Law defends closely held companies, professional practices, and equity positions through Illinois dissolution. The valuation fight is treated as exactly that: a fight, with experts, records, and a litigator who understands what the numbers mean.
Business Valuation in an Illinois Divorce
Valuation is rarely a single number. Income, market, and asset approaches produce different results, and every input is argued: normalized earnings, discounts for lack of marketability, the treatment of goodwill. Illinois law distinguishes enterprise goodwill, which is divisible, from personal goodwill attached to the owner, which is not. Where that line is drawn can change the marital estate by the value of the company itself.
Equity & Deferred Compensation Under Illinois Law
Equity and deferred compensation raise their own questions: which grants are marital, how unvested awards are apportioned to the marriage, and what a restricted position is actually worth today. We retain and work with forensic accountants and valuation experts as a matter of course, not as an afterthought.
Protecting the Business Through an Illinois Divorce
Throughout the case, the operating priority is continuity. Discovery, temporary orders, and settlement structures are managed so the company keeps functioning. Buyouts, offsets, and payment structures that leave the enterprise whole are almost always better outcomes than co-ownership with a former spouse.
How Business Valuation Disputes Proceed in Cook County
A contested business valuation typically opens with a neutral appraiser or, more often in high-stakes cases, competing experts retained by each side. Discovery reaches the company itself: general ledgers, tax returns, buy-sell agreements, and often a deposition of the business’s own accountant. Where the two valuations diverge sharply, the court holds an evidentiary hearing before trial to narrow the classification and valuation issues, so the numbers that reach a judge are already tested.
What Makes a Business Divorce Different?
In most high-asset divorces, an asset is either kept or sold. A business is neither: it is a marital asset and, for the owner, a livelihood that has to keep running through the litigation and after it. That dual reality changes the strategy. We are not only fighting for a fair number. We are structuring the outcome so the company survives the judgment with its financing, contracts, and key relationships intact.
Legally reviewed byKourosh Arami, Esq.Founding Attorney · Chicago-Kent College of Law · 21 years of Illinois family law practiceEditorial Policy
Retained by
- Owners of closely held companies and family businesses
- Professionals with practices: medical, legal, financial
- Executives holding options, RSUs, and partnership interests
- Spouses with marital claims against a business the other side controls
From the Library
Arami Law serves clients across Chicago, Cook County, and the collar counties, including the North Shore communities of Winnetka, Wilmette, Glencoe, Kenilworth, Evanston, and Lake Forest.
II.The Approach
Prepared as if it will be tried.
Control the valuation record
Independent experts, complete financials, and normalized earnings. The company is valued on evidence, not on the other side’s narrative.
Separate the goodwill
Enterprise goodwill is divisible in Illinois; personal goodwill is not. Drawing that line correctly is often the single largest number in the case.
Structure the exit
Buyouts, offsets against other assets, and payment terms designed so the operating business and its cash flow survive the judgment.
Protect operations in the meantime
Discovery and temporary relief managed to keep customers, partners, and employees out of the crossfire.
III.On the Record
Ehsan R.
Verified Google Review
Business owner · Complex divorce
“If you’re a professional or business owner looking for a family law attorney who operates with the precision of a corporate strategist, I cannot recommend Kourosh Arami highly enough. Going into a complex divorce involving significant real estate and aggressive financial demands from opposing counsel, I needed someone who understood risk mitigation — and Kourosh delivered on every front.”
IV.Questions
Business division in Illinois, answered.
V.The Inquiry
Submit your matter for confidential review.
The firm accepts a limited number of matters each year. Kourosh personally reviews every inquiry, in confidence.
Prefer to speak directly? (312) 212-1399
Serving Chicago, Cook County, and all of Illinois.