Jack M. Siegel was an expert in municipal law and a trusted and respected adviser to a succession of town leaders in a career that spanned more than 50 years as village attorney for both Schaumburg and Arlington Heights. Mr. Siegel was also village attorney for Riverwoods and had been corporation counsel for Evanston for 47 years.

"He was the only village attorney we've ever had," Schaumburg Mayor Al Larson said. Larson said Mr. Siegel was not only a wise counselor but a vigorous defender of his town's interests.

"He was just a soft-spoken, gentle man until he got into court, and then he was a ferocious tiger — or so I've heard," Larson said.

Mr. Siegel, 88, who lived in Wilmette for more than 50 years, died of complications from cancer Tuesday, Sept. 23, in hospice in NorthShore Evanston Hospital, according to his wife, Jeanne.

For the last 15 years, Mr. Siegel was with the Chicago office of Holland & Knight. Steven Elrod, the executive partner in the Chicago office, agreed with Larson's assessment of Mr. Siegel.

"I've observed the transformation of Jack Siegel from soft-spoken intellectual to the tenacious litigator," Elrod said.

He appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court twice on behalf of suburban towns, an experience he listed among the highlights of his career when celebrating his 50th anniversary with Arlington Heights in 2011.

One of those cases, Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp., led to a landmark 1977 ruling upholding a village's right to dictate where multifamily housing could be located.

Siegel's place in Schaumburg's history includes defending a legal challenge to the village's incorporation in the 1950s, drawing up its zoning ordinances and master plan, helping create its park district and writing land-use covenants that protected the status of Spring Valley Nature Center.

"It's safe to say that without Jack Siegel, there wouldn't be a Schaumburg," Larson said.

Mr. Siegel is also survived by a daughter, Julie Halpern; a son, Philip; a sister, Shirley Rustin; and three grandchildren.

Services were held.

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