O'Keefe Lyons & Hynes LLC

Mark R. Davis represents clients in Cook County and throughout the U.S., focusing on real estate tax issues and related litigation. Before joining the firm in 1989, Mark worked in the Chicago Office of the State’s Attorney of Cook County as Supervisor of the Tax Division, where he directed 12 attorneys, conducting all trial and appellate litigation on behalf of Cook County government related to real estate and personal property taxation

Appointed a Special Assistant State’s Attorney of Cook County in 1997 to study and recommend structural changes in the State’s Attorney’s Tax Division, Mark argued a case before the Illinois Supreme Court to uphold the reformed judicial tax appeal provisions of the Illinois Property Tax Code. The Court voted to uphold the reforms. Over the last two decades, however, restrictive interpretations of the reform law by the Cook County taxing authorities made it largely ineffective as a taxpayer remedy against violations of federal and state constitutional equality principles. In 2020, Mark was lead counsel in persuading the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to uphold federal jurisdiction in a case challenging these restrictive interpretations of the reform law on constitutional grounds.

Clients:

Mark focuses his practice on property taxation matters for:

• National and regional real estate developers and institutional investors, and owners of industrial, retail, office and multi-family properties
• Corporate real estate campuses
• Small to mid-sized businesses

Practice areas:

• Property tax assessment litigation in Illinois and other jurisdictions
• Administrative appeals
• Property tax exemption and enforcement

“We strive for complete coverage of the world of property tax problems and disputes. Clients often come to us with problems that they have been unable to resolve through ordinary tax appeal processes, often because of unusual legal issues.”