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Hanania interviews Burt Odelson the best election and municipal attorney in America
06-27-26 Ray Hanania conducts a profile Interview of Attorney Burt Odelson interview Burton S. Odelson, a prominent Illinois attorney who has spent more than five decades specializing in municipal law, election law, school law, and local government representation. Video podcast below
Burt Odelson is the founding partner of the law firm Odelson, Murphey, Frazier & McGrath, based in Evergreen Park, Illinois, which he established in 1972.
Some highlights of his career include: Election law expert: Odelson has represented numerous candidates, elected officials, political organizations, and local governments in election disputes.
Odelson has argued cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of Illinois, and Illinois appellate courts. He also participated on the legal team involved in the disputed 2000 United States presidential election recount. Municipal attorney:
Odelson has served as attorney for numerous Illinois municipalities, townships, school districts, and special districts.
As of 2026, he continues to represent several local governments, including serving as Village Attorney for Bolingbrook in proceedings before the Illinois Commerce Commission.
School law: Odelson has long represented elementary and high school districts throughout Illinois on governance, labor, and education law matters.
Public service: Beyond his legal practice, he served for more than 17 years as a trustee and chairman of the board of Moraine Valley Community College. He has also held leadership roles with Brother Rice High School and the Women’s Care Center.
Interviewer Ray Hanania first met Burt Odelson in 1977-78, who is one of the nation’s top attorneys in election law, municipal law, school law and public service.
During this interview, Hanania discusses how Odelson got innto politics, and his introduction to law at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Odelson shared his experience driving Gore Vidal during a 1968 campaign and meeting Paul Newman at a convention.
Hanania and Odelson talk about the 1982 murder of Moraine Valley Community College Trustee Dianne Masters. They discussed the tragic case of Diane Masters, who disappeared in 1982 and was later found dead, leading to the conviction of her husband Alan Masters in federal court. Burt mentioned that Diane had started a center for homeless women who were victims of domestic violence, which recently celebrated an honor at its current location.
He discussed his appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court to argue in favor of Eugene Pincham who ran for President of the Cook County Board in 1990. Pincham was thrown off of the ballot and Odelson and his team succeeded in reversing the politically motivated ruling against Pincham. Pincham formed the Harold Washington Party after being excluded from the Democratic Party’s slate, but the Cook County Electoral Board initially allowed him on the ballot in a 2-1 decision.
The case was later appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court, which ruled against Pincham, leading to an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court where Burt argued the case. The Supreme Court reversed the Illinois decision in a 7-1 ruling, with Burt noting that this case, Norman versus Reed, is still quoted today regarding ballot access.
In 2000, Odelson represented George W. Bush in the election against Al Gore, discussing how bad communications with Gore’s team failed to bring him on to represent them and how Bush got to him first. Burt discussed the Gore-Bush “Hanging Chad” case, where he represented Bush’s team as an expert on counting ballots with chads based on his previous experience in Illinois, and discusses the history of how the term “chad” was first identified in legal court cases.
Odelson discusses the current fight against Illinois American Water being led by Bolingbrook Mayor Mary Alexander-Basta to block an outrageous and unjustified water rate hike (the 5th in the past decade which has seen rates increase by more than $550 million — IAW showed profits last year of nearly $1 billion).
Ray Hanania calls Odelson one of the best attorneys in Illinois when it comes to School, Municipal, Elections and Public Service. “No one is better that Odelson and no one has the level of experience and knowledge that Odelson has in those important fields.” For. more information look for Hanania’s column on the Odelson and the interview on his syndicated column website. https://CourageousThought.com.
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
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