Divorce and custody for police, fire, and military families in Lake County.
Most family lawyers have to be briefed on what a rotating tour does to a custody schedule, how a pension fund actually pays out, or what deployment orders do to a parenting plan. Michael A. Anderson lived all three. He served as a U.S. Army Paratrooper and a Chicago Police Sergeant, represented sergeants through their union, and now practices family law as a partner at Davis Friedman, serving families across Lake County and the northern suburbs. For Lake County residents, these cases run through the 19th Judicial Circuit courthouse in Waukegan.
How does a rotating tour fit a parenting plan?
A standard alternating-weekend plan assumes a Monday-to-Friday job. Tours, furlough days, seasonal picks, and mandatory overtime break that assumption in the first month. Illinois courts allocate parenting time around the child’s best interests, not around a template, which means a plan can and should be written for the schedule your family actually runs. Michael builds parenting plans that survive shift changes, with trade rules and holiday logic spelled out in advance instead of argued about later.
What happens to a police or fire pension in a divorce?
For many police and fire households, the pension is worth more than the house. The share earned during the marriage is generally marital property, and for Chicago police and fire funds a division is carried out through a QILDRO, a specific court order directing the fund itself. Getting it right takes two skills at once: the legal mechanics of the order and the financial judgment to value a future income stream today. Michael’s accounting degree is not a footnote here; he checks the numbers himself, and knows when trading pension share against other assets serves a client better than splitting it.
What do deployment orders do to the parenting schedule?
Military families live with the possibility that a set of orders redraws everything mid-plan. Illinois law and federal protections account for this: courts can enter temporary arrangements for a deployment and restore the prior schedule when it ends, and service-related absence is treated differently from walking away. The practical work is getting the plan amended before the orders take effect, so nobody spends a deployment fighting about it.
Why families in uniform call Michael
- U.S. Army Paratrooper, then Chicago Police Sergeant. The details of the work never need explaining.
- Two years as a Chicago Police Sergeants Union representative, advocating for officers when their careers and pensions were on the line.
- B.A. in Accounting. Pension valuations and financial affidavits get read line by line.
- Selected to Super Lawyers Rising Stars, 2022–2026.
- Every family, in uniform or not, gets the same close reading. His full story is here.
The first conversation is a short one about your situation and what needs attention first.
This page is general information about how Illinois family law treats situations common in police, fire, and military households. It is not legal advice about your case.