Frank Himel grew up in a courtroom and he knew at an early age that he was destined to be a criminal defense lawyer. His father was a criminal court judge at “26^th and California”, now retired, and his mother was a legendary trial lawyer and is now a sitting judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County.

Right out of law school, Himel started work as a prosecutor learning the trade, meeting people, learning the appeals process, developing trial advocacy, and learning the most important tool for a trial lawyer, the ability to think on your feet.

The years in the state’s attorney’s office paid off because Himel came right out of the prosecutor’s office swinging with a victory in his first murder trial. In that case, People v. Richard, Himel secured an acquittal for Richard who had given a handwritten confession to police and prosecutors. It was the insight learned from the time spent in the prosecutor’s office that allowed Himel to effectively cross-examine the assistant state’s attorney r who had taken the confession and ultimately led to the jury rejecting the the confession and finding Richard not guilty.”