Women in Law 2024

2024

VERONICA BONILLA-LOPEZ CHAIR, SCHOOL LAW PRACTICE GROUP Del Galdo Law Group, LLC

V eronica Bonilla-Lopez is the Chair of the school law practice group at Del Galdo Law Group, LLC, which primarily provides legal representation to governmental entities. She has been with Del Galdo Law Group, LLC since 2007. In her role as Chair, Veronica manages the counseling of a variety of matters related to employment and education law for several school districts. Veronica is also an effective litigator, representing clients in the defense of state and federal litigation. She has obtained summary judgment for her clients on various federal and state claims, helped secure a verdict in favor of her client on a three-week jury trial for a federal employment discrimination case, and successfully argued before the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Her work includes representation of public sector clients before administrative and quasi-judicial bodies as well. She is also a certified hearing officer who acts as an adjudicator presiding over ordinance violations for one of the firm’s municipal clients. Veronica graduated from Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 2003 where she was a member of the Hispanic Bar Association Moot Court team. She began her legal career as an Assistant State’s Attorney with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Starting in the Appellate Division, she wrote and filed appellate briefs on trial issues. After transferring out of the Appellate Division, she subsequently prosecuted in the criminal division of the Fourth Municipal District of the Circuit Court of

Cook County where she conducted countless trials, presented preliminary hearings and indictments on various felonies, and first chaired a jury trial. Veronica has been previously highlighted in a display for Hispanic heritage month at Loyola University Chicago School of Law and spotlighted in an alumni newsletter of the Loyola University Chicago School of Law Latinx Law Students Association (“LLSA”). She also previously served as a panelist for an LLSA sponsored event entitled Lawtina Forum. In years past, Veronica has provided mentorship to law students as part of a program with Loyola’s Law School and most recently with the Diversity Scholarship Foundation First Generation Mentorship Program. The foundation, according to their website, is an entity dedicated to providing financial assistance to underprivileged and underrepresented minorities to attend law school in an effort to diversify the legal community. Veronica is fluent in Spanish and prides herself in giving back to her community. She spent 13 years, from February 2011 to July 2024, as a Board Member on the Board of Education for Maywood- Melrose Park-Broadview School District 89, an elementary school district, multiple years of which she presided as the President or Vice President of the Board. She also formerly served some years as a Trustee for the Village of Melrose Park Public Library. She has been married to Simon Lopez, a business analyst, for 22 years and has a son, Max and daughter, Alyson.

WOMEN IN LAW 2024