About Rachel
Rachel Hernandez built her career on courtroom work and quiet interventions at the negotiation table. She earned a J.D. from Northern Illinois University College of Law in 2005 after completing a B.S. in Law Enforcement and Justice Administration at Western Illinois University in 1997. Her education set a clear path toward public service and later toward private practice.
Her early legal roles were in county state’s lawyer offices. She served as an intern under Supreme Court Rule 711 in 2003 at the Kane County State’s Lawyer. After law school she joined the Boone County State’s Lawyer as an assistant in 2005. The next year she moved to Winnebago County where she worked as a felony assistant, an assistant state’s lawyer, and later as a supervisor. Those years in prosecutorial offices gave her sustained exposure to criminal procedures and courtroom responsibilities.
By 2008 Hernandez was practicing and mediating under her own name. She later spent time of counsel at a regional law office in 2015 and then formed a small practice in 2016. That same year she became a partner and founding lawyer at Bruckner Hernandez Legal Solutions, LLC. The firm lists offices in St. Charles and Sycamore. Her résumé also includes work outside litigation: in the late 1990s she handled fraud investigation and information security for HSBC and earlier served as a resource developer and events coordinator for a community crisis center.
Hernandez built a practice that blends courtroom experience with alternative dispute resolution. She is a collaborative professional mediator and handles family law matters including uncontested and collaborative divorces, child-related issues, domestic violence matters, and guardian ad litem work. She also offers limited scope representation and mediation services. Her practice reflects an interest in resolving disputes through negotiation whenever feasible and taking cases to court when necessary.
Her professional memberships are broad and often local. She holds admittance in the DeKalb County, Kane County and Illinois State Bar associations. She belongs to the International Association of Collaborative Professionals, the Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois, and the Illinois Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Locally she takes part in county bar associations and serves on committees, including a solo and small firm practice committee and the board of a community crisis center where she is secretary.
Outside of law she is active in community and church groups, holding leadership roles in the St. Charles Mothers Club and volunteering at St. John Neumann Roman Catholic Church. She now practices at Bruckner Hernandez Legal Solutions, LLC, focusing on family law, mediation, and related matters.
