Spotlight on Emily Rapp

Emily Rapp is a new appointee to the ISBA’s Women and the Law Committee. Her main areas of practice are Family Law and serving as a Guardian ad Litem in Kane, Kendall and DuPage Counties.

Emily was a teenager when bitten by the legal bug. She read Silent Spring, a book by Rachel Carson that discussed the effects of herbicides and pesticides on the environment and decided right then that she wanted to be an environmental lawyer. Then she took environmental law. She is a family law practitioner.

Emily is a 2011 graduate from Loyola University School of Law. During her law school years, she was a 711-licensed clerk at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and clerked for the CTA. In law school, after determining environmental law was not her forte, she had dreams of becoming a Cook County prosecutor. Cook County did not share Emily’s dream. Resourceful Emily had a back-up plan, family law. She used her connections to find her first job out of law school at Peskind Law Firm in St. Charles. She credits that firm and Steve Peskind with teaching her a lot about family law and dealing with clients. From there she went to work for Weiler & Lengle. Rory Weiler continues to mentor her to this day. In April of this year, she opened her own practice, MagnusonRapp Law, in downtown Geneva.

One of the benefits of law school is that Emily fell in love in contracts class with her now husband. They formed what she affectionately refers to as a “binding relationship.” She is a mother of young children and member of DuPage Doubles Family of Multiples Club. Yes, she has multiples. She is also involved in her church community.

Just in case her life is not busy enough, there are more interesting facts about Emily. She serves on the Kane County Bar Association Board of Managers and does the choreography for the Kane County Bar Show. She was a ballet dancer in her youth. She was also a Mighty Mite Downhill ski racer in junior high and high school. Emily is also an artist. Her favorite medium is oils. Emily has travelled extensively from Costa Rica to Nicaragua to Ireland and London and many more countries too numerous to list. One more interesting fact about Emily is that when she was 10 years old, she was baptized on a Native American Indian reservation mission that was located in northern Idaho.

To those who know Emily, it comes as no surprise that she has opened her own law firm. Not bad for a girl who was born and raised in in northern Idaho and eastern Washington. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Portland where she majored in theatre and environmental policy and ethics.

The entrepreneurial spirit runs in her family. Her brother runs his own business as do her mother and father. Emily’s mother is her role model. Her mother started her own business as a sign painter to support Emily and her siblings in Idaho and now is the CEO of a successful company and living in London. Emily credits her mother for teaching her that she could do anything and everything if she put in the time and effort.

When asked about the best tip she can give to other lawyers, her response is to stay involved and network. One never knows where their next referral or friend will come from. Keep in touch with people and send thank you notes. Have lunch. Most important, be courteous. You never know when and where you will run into the people you meet. 