Cheryl Dancey Balough

Professional Experience 

Cheryl Dancey Balough focuses her practice on helping clients to protect their ideas, their intellectual capital – including trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets – and their privacy as they start new ventures or grow existing businesses. She has represented:    

• Start-up business on the Internet or brick and mortar ventures
• Organizations and individuals involved in contractual disputes  
• Individual accused of trade secret theft by a former employer      
• Businesses seeking trademark protection
• Individuals buying out business partners
• Individuals who have been defamed or accused of defamation
• National telecommunications firms

Ms. Balough has also represented property owner associations and a municipality in water rate cases before the Illinois Commerce Commission.

Before becoming an attorney, Ms. Balough spent 20 years as a marketing executive. She understands the challenges facing businesses and their need to continually innovate without incurring excessive risks. She also applies her expertise in academia, having served as senior faculty in communication and business planning at Keller Graduate School of Management.

Ms. Balough currently serves on the Board of Managers of the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago (IPLAC), on the Executive Committee of the Chicago Bar Association's Alliance for Women and as its Legislative Liaison, on the National Advisory Board for the Bachelor of Science degree program in Justice Administration at DeVry University, and as Communications Co-Director of the American Bar Association Cyberspace Law Committee.

While in law school, Ms. Balough externed for the Honorable Ann Claire Williams of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals; Justice Jill K. McNulty of the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, Sixth Division; and Judge Jeffrey Lawrence of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Law Division, Motions Section.

Education 

Ms. Balough earned a JD degree with high honors from Chicago-Kent College of Law, where she received numerous CALI Awards for Excellence and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. She earned a Masters in Business Administration with concentrations in Marketing, Finance, and Management Policy from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where she graduated first in her class. Other degrees include a Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies, with a focus in English and History, from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Arts with high honors, with a major in French and minors in English and Education, from Michigan State University.

Admissions 

Supreme Court of Illinois

U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois

Languages Spoken 

Portuguese and French

Community Activities 

Ms. Balough’s civic and community activities have included the Human Concerns Commission of Holy Name Cathedral. She was elected to the board of the National Coalition on Donation, serving as External Communications Committee Chair, and was appointed to the Illinois Department of Public Health Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center Licensing Board. She has also served as Communications Chair and Membership Chair for the Women Health Executives Network and on the Membership Committee of the Professional Women's Club of Chicago.