Alejandro Caffarelli

Alejandro Caffarelli is the founder of the employment law firm of Caffarelli & Associates, Ltd. He is a former President of the Illinois Chapter of the National Employment Lawyers’ Association, and a former Executive Board member of the Hispanic Lawyers’ Association of Illinois. The Firm represents employees from all walks of life, from migrant workers and day laborers to clerical workers, middle management, academics and Fortune 500 executives, as well as businesses of all sizes, and government.

In over twenty-five years as an employment lawyer, Mr. Caffarelli has personally litigated hundreds of cases. What distinguishes Mr. Caffarelli from many of his peers who represent plaintiffs only is that he also serves as a Neutral on the American Arbitration Association’s National Roster of Arbitrators, and gained extensive experience handling high level management-side work at a management-side firm early in his career. In addition, the City of Chicago named Mr. Caffarelli as a Special Assistant Corporation Counsel in 2008 and appointed him to defend the City in two class action cases with potential damages in the seven figures. In 2022 his appointment was renewed to represent the Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department in termination hearings before the Chicago Police Board.
Since 2008, Mr. Caffarelli has been awarded the top “AV” rating by LexisNexis’ Martindale-Hubbell, one of the oldest and most respected peer-review based rating services for attorneys. According to Martindale-Hubbell, the attainment of an “AV” rating is “a testament to the fact that a lawyer’s peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence.” Mr. Caffarelli also has been rated “superb,” a perfect 10 out of 10 on a numerical scale, by Avvo. In 2011, Mr. Caffarelli was named an “Illinois Super Lawyer,” and has continued to be named a Super Lawyer each year since then, as well as being named among the top 100 lawyers in the State of Illinois since 2022 in all practice areas. Since 2018 he has been listed as one of the 500 leading employment lawyers in the U.S. by Lawdragon, and since 2019, he has been named a Leading Lawyer by Law Bulletin Media. Mr. Caffarelli has also been quoted and recognized as an employment law expert by the national media, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times online, Univision Chicago, and Telemundo.
Mr. Caffarelli has served on the Board of Directors for the Illinois chapter of the National Employment Lawyers’ Association, as well as the Hispanic Lawyers’ Association of Illinois. In 2014 then-Chief Judge Ruben Castillo appointed Mr. Caffarelli to the Pro Bono Advisory Committee for the Unites States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and in 2018 U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth appointed him to a joint screening committee whose task is to review and vet District Court candidates and advise the Senators regarding the candidates’ qualifications and fitness for the position. From 2013-2016, Mr. Caffarelli was on the Board of Directors of Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc. (“CDM”), an organization that supports and defends the rights of Mexico-based migrant workers. From 2016 to 2020, Mr. Caffarelli served on the Board of Directors for Latinos Progresando, a Chicago-based organization that serves immigrants with the highest quality, low-cost legal immigration services, community education and engagement, and advocacy/organizing around policy that affects immigrants. And since 2005, Mr. Caffarelli has provided pro bono services on behalf of indigent workers through ARISE-Chicago, and has served on the ARISE Legal Advisory Board.
Mr. Caffarelli received a B.A. from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, with a double major of History and Spanish Literature, and received a Juris Doctor from the University of Minnesota Law School, which he attended on a full scholarship and where he served as Note & Comment Editor for the prestigious Minnesota Law Review, which has been ranked among the ten most cited law journals in the United States. During that time, he authored an article on criminal asset forfeitures, which subsequently was one of the few student articles accepted for publication. In 1995, he served as an intern for the Honorable Judge Michael Davis of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. Since graduation, Mr. Caffarelli has been admitted to practice law before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the Illinois Supreme Court, and the trial bar of the Northern District of Illinois. In 2005, Mr. Caffarelli honed his trial skills by participating in the National Institute for Trial Advocacy’s Midwest Regional Workshop in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 2020 he became a certified mediator by completing the Chicago Bar Association’s Advanced Workshop for Improved Negotiation, Mediation and Advocacy Skills.
Mr. Caffarelli currently lives in the City of Chicago.