About Jonathan P.
Jonathan P. Decatorsmith trained first as a generalist and then built a career that has straddled government litigation, private practice and legal education. He earned his J.D. from the University of Colorado School of Law at Boulder in 1986 after completing a B.A. at the University of Illinois in 1983. Those academic years set the stage for work that would alternate between the courtroom and the classroom.
His early professional years were spent at the Internal Revenue Service in Chicago, where he served as a senior trial lawyer and internal instructor beginning in 1987. That period gave him heavy exposure to tax litigation and courtroom procedure. He left government service later and stepped into roles that blended practice and teaching. By 1990 he was teaching as an adjunct at DePaul University, and he expanded his academic work in the mid-1990s as an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s he moved into more senior law firm and clinic roles. In 1999 he worked as a senior associate in Minneapolis at BlueDog, Olsen and Small. In 2001 he took on dual responsibilities at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law as director of clinical education and clinical professor of law. At the same time he served as managing lawyer for The Tax Practice of IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. Those positions combined oversight of clinical programs with direct client representation in tax matters.
Throughout his career he has handled matters that required courtroom presence, tackled complex federal tax issues and taught students who were learning client advocacy. The mix of trial work at the IRS, firm experience and clinical leadership shaped a practice that balances litigation skills with an emphasis on training newer lawyers. He remains active in professional associations and maintains ties to bar activities in Chicago.
He is admitted to practice in Illinois and holds memberships in the American Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association. Based in Chicago, his work over the years has centered on tax controversy, trial representation and legal education. He currently practices in Illinois from a Chicago office, where his work concentrates on tax controversy, trial representation and clinical legal education.
