On November 1, 2011, two highly-regarded Park Ridge law firms, Owens, Owens & Rinn, Ltd. and Di Monte & Lizak, LLC will combine and form a single firm known as Di Monte & Lizak, LLC, practicing from one office, at 216 Higgins Road, Park Ridge, IL 60068. The main telephone number for the firm will be (847) 698-9600, and the firm’s website will be www.dimontelaw.com.
Owens, Owens and Rinn, Ltd. was founded by John E. Owens, Sr. in 1923. John supported himself through law school selling plumbing supplies, and many of his former customers became clients of the newly founded firm. John Sr. was joined in the practice by his brother, Thomas L. Owens, and his brother-in-law, Vincent G. Rinn.
Like many hard-working attorneys, John Sr. made time for service to the profession, serving on the Board of Managers of the Chicago Bar Association, and the Committee on Character and Fitness of the Illinois Bar. In the latter capacity, he was one of the members who successfully opposed the admission of an admitted member of the Communist Party to the Illinois Bar. That case ultimately reached the United States Supreme court, where John Sr.’s position was upheld.
Thomas L. Owens entered public service by running for and being elected to the Congressional seat representing what was then the 7th Congressional District in Illinois (Park Ridge). In Congress, having an interest in Labor Law, he served on the powerful House Labor Committee where he was a proponent of the Taft-Hartley Act. While serving in Washington, Thomas was stricken with a fatal disease, and he died in the Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1948.