Justin M. H. Abdilla

Background

Justin Abdilla is a Chicago-area real estate attorney who has worked on over 700 files across twelve years of practice. He started in 2013 with Joseph P. McCaffery and Associates, rising to the rank of senior associate within a year. His early career was built on foreclosure defense and short sale negotiations, work that gave him an unusually detailed understanding of how distressed properties move through the Illinois court system.

In 2016, he made his first pivot, taking on construction law and contract injury cases. He negotiated two six-figure settlements in his first year handling them. By 2017, he had begun taking on transactions, and this set off what he calls the creative era for the firm. From 2017 to 2022, Justin became the attorney investors called when they had an unusual deal that needed to get done. He closed 300+ transactions in this period, including subject-to acquisitions, wraps, seller-financed sales, and multi-unit acquisitions on short timelines.

The evictions practice ramped up in 2023, growing out of the distressed property transactions. That year was small, about 80 filings, mostly as a service to existing clients. By 2024, it had become 150 filings annually with multiple attorneys handling trials every week. In mid-2025, the firm took on several multi-million dollar construction disputes and an eight-figure consulting engagement in a complex commercial matter.

The cybersecurity work is not a hobby. It directly informs the firm's identity protection practice, where Justin represents victims of identity theft and data breaches. His first vulnerability discovery involved gaining control of a machine's RAM and is pending resolution, not yet published. His February 2026 paper on AI discoverability vulnerabilities, Discovering a Conversation with a Machine Friend, is now indexed on SSRN.

When he is not working, Justin plays Chess and Go, reads history, and cheers on his wife at her long-distance runs. They have two children together. Justin is a practicing Catholic and supports those who follow the example of St. Thérèse, in loving God, following Jesus, and serving all.

Education & Credentials

Practice Areas

Selected Notable Work

• Performed commercial due diligence on a $78,000,000 transaction on Chicago's Magnificent Mile
• Authored the Standard Operating Procedures for underwriting subject-to transactions for Illinois title insurance
• Successfully prosecuted an injunction prohibiting an alleged tortfeasor from interfering with 35,000 businesses
• Underwrote a business-to-business loan from a publicly traded company for $4,000,000 of security
• Prevailed on appeal in Bank of America v. Russell, changing the Illinois Mortgage Foreclosure Law's application in 735 ILCS 2/1302
• Transacted a 21-unit building on 14 days' notice with clean title
• Wrote a Rule 504 Accredited Investor Offering for $20,000,000 to a local religious association
• Successfully litigated two separate title insurance claims resulting in full payment of the purchase price to the investor when the transaction from the seller was fraudulent
• Successfully litigated a release of $50,000 of municipal liabilities for permits through rezoning

Publications & Media

Courts & Jurisdictions

Justin regularly appears in the following courts:

Client Reviews

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