Sari W Montgomery

Partner

Robinson, Stewart, Montgomery & Doppke LLC

Sari W. Montgomery has devoted her career to the law of lawyering, legal ethics and professional responsibility for more than nearly 30 years.

After more than a decade as Litigation and Senior Litigation Counsel at the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois (ARDC), where she conducted hundreds of investigations and prosecuted dozens of cases before the ARDC Hearing Board, Sari decided to apply her extensive knowledge of the ARDC and legal ethics to helping lawyers who may be facing disciplinary proceedings or who need guidance on ethics matters. Since 2010, she has successfully represented lawyers at every stage of the disciplinary process from investigation and hearing, to appeals before the ARDC Review Board and the Illinois Supreme Court. Sari also represents judges in disciplinary proceedings, and bar applicants in navigating Character and Fitness proceedings.

In addition to defending lawyers, judges, and bar applicants in disciplinary and bar admissions proceedings, Sari provides preventative consulting services and legal advice to lawyers regarding all manner of ethical and practice management issues. She has issued opinion letters on behalf of lawyers, law firms, government agencies, and law-related businesses to assist in clarifying their ethical obligations and to ensure their business models and procedures are consistent with the Rules of Professional Conduct. Sari also serves as an expert witness in legal malpractice and fee matters.

Sari is a leader in local, state and national bar associations and frequently presents at national, state, and local CLE programs. She is the Treasurer of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, serves on the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Professional Regulation and on the Illinois State Bar Association Committee on Professional Conduct, as well as on the Board of Managers of the Chicago Bar Association. Sari is also an Adjunct Professor of Legal Ethics at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, and is a faculty member of the Practising Law Institute (PLI) and the National Academy of Continuing Legal Education (NACLE).

Sari has published numerous articles on a wide range of ethics and professional responsibility issues and has been appointed as a Subject Matter Expert/Drafting Committee Member for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE). Sari is a graduate of the University of Chicago and Loyola University of Chicago School of Law.