Ahad Syed
Managing Attorney
Executive Overview
Ahad founded Syed Law with the goal of providing pragmatic, high quality legal solutions for clients with reasonable fees. A law firm for the 21st Century, Syed Law remains innovative in its approach to legal solutions and technology-driven. Ahad believes the client must come first, that communication is essential to a great attorney-client relationship, and that outstanding legal service is not the exception, but the norm.
Professional Biography
Values:
- #1 – The client’s concerns come first
- #2 – Communication is key to a successful attorney-client relationship
- #3 – Exceptional legal service should be the norm
Ahad Syed is an experienced litigator and transactional attorney focused on representing small business owners, general managers, sole proprietors, and closely-held corporations in business and corporate law, civil litigation, commercial litigation, contracts, copyright, estate planning, and trademark. In addition, Ahad provides general counsel and legal consultation services for businesses as well as serving as local counsel for other attorneys. Following law school, Ahad worked for two prestigious law firms in Chicago representing businesses ranging from sole proprietorships and closely-held corporations to multi-national corporations.
Ahad has been retained as as attorney of record by at least one Hollywood celebrity, a high-ranking United Nations employee, and several companies with an international and global footprint. He has repeatedly earned praise from clients for his careful attention to detail, responsiveness to their emails and phone calls, and no-nonsense guidance on the law.
Representative Cases
Representative Cases
- Represented over twenty multinational clients in several U.S. jurisdictions in the equipment finance and leasing sector with respect to replevin, conversion, and contract damages actions involving nonpayment with respect to heavy machinery and trucks
- Brought breach of contract action on behalf of a mom-and-pop custom gelato truck against the manufacturer of a defective refrigeration unit
- Pursued a defamation action on behalf of a Hollywood actor with respect to defamatory comments made by another Hollywood actor to other individuals
- Represented landlord in defending against a source-of-income housing discrimination suit with the Chicago Commission on Human Relations
- Represented a United Nations employee and victim of identity theft clear his name with respect to several tax liens on vehicles the client did not purchase
- Represented several sole-proprietor artists and novelists register copyrights on masks and books
- Defended an individual with respect to copyright infringement claim from a large multinational media production company alleging unlawful torrent-sharing of its videos and successfully settled the matter in the client’s favor
- Defended a regional bank with respect to fraudulent conversion claim with respect to the finance of a multi-million dollar hockey rink
- Drafted several lease agreement packages for equipment leasing companies in the trucking industry
- Reviewed corporate documents including leasing and finance agreements, payment schedules for corporate clients, and various other corporate documents related to and arising out of the financing and lease of equipment and heavy machinery in several states
- Reviewed sweepstakes Terms of Service (a.k.a. Terms of Use) for a mobile gaming app and sweepstakes organization
- Advised clients with respect to usury laws in several states
- Advised equipment finance and leasing companies regarding banking regulations in the developing cannabis sector
Services
- Business and Corporate Law
- Civil Litigation
- Commercial Litigation
- Contracts
- Copyright
- Estate Planning (Wills & Trusts)
- Legal Consulting
- Outside and Local Counsel
- Real Estate Sale or Purchases
- Real Estate Disputes
- Trademarks
Academics
Prior to beginning his legal career, Ahad Syed attended the prestigious University of Illinois College of Law. Academically, Ahad earned the highest grade in two classes, one of which was a legal clinic where he directly represented clients under supervision of a licensed attorney. While in law school, Ahad served as a judicial extern for Judge Donald G. Wilkerson of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. While other students typically picked one, Ahad was selected for leadership on both a journal and moot court. Ahad was Articles Editors for the University of Illinois Journal of Law, Technology & Policy (JLTP) and represented the law school at the 23rd Wilhelm C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court pre-moot in Budapest, Hungary and moot court in Vienna, Austria. In addition to several other honors, Ahad earned an Honors Distinction in Legal Research, and the H.H. Harris Foundation Hough Award for “excellence in law.”
Publications
- The Right to be Forgotten: Addressing the Privacy Dilemma in Arrestee Records Under the FOIA7(C), 22:10 The Docket of the Lake County Bar Association (Waukegan, Ill.), Oct. 2015, at 22.
- Out After Dark: The Federal Circuit Court Split Over Juvenile Curfew Laws, 21:7 The Docket of the Lake County Bar Association (Waukegan, Ill.), July 2014, at 8.