Admitted to Practice in All State and Federal Courts

Coston & Rademacher can meet your legal needs including litigation, replevins, bankruptcies, franchise-financing litigation, transaction negotiations and documentation, workouts and restructring, general corporate representation, and new-corporation/LLC formation and filing.

Real Estate Transactional and closings, individual and commercial
Mortgage Foreclosures, commercial and consumer
Retail/Consumer collections

Our Attorneys

James E. Coston

Mr. Coston, the firm's Chairman, is a nationally recognized lease-finance attorney who has successfully litigated cases on behalf of equipment lessors in state and federal trial and appellate courts throughout the United States and has represented lenders and lessors in over $2 billion in equipment loans and finance transactions.

Born in 1955, Mr. Coston was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University in 1977 and his Juris Doctor degree from the DePaul University College of Law in 1980. He has earned admission to the Illinois State Bar, the United States District Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and the Federal Trial Bar.

Mr. Coston has practiced lease-finance law exclusively for private law firms since 1982. He opened Chicago and Dallas offices for a predecessor California-based law firm before starting his own lease-law practice. He is also a frequent lecturer and instructor on equipment leasing law and business issues.

Mr. Coston serves on the Commercial Finance Law Committee of the Chicago Bar Association, and is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association and the Commercial Law League of America. He also serves on the Equipment Leasing Subcommittee of the American Bar Association and its Task Force on revisions to U.C.C. Article 2A. Mr. Coston is an active member of the Equipment Leasing Association of America (ELA), now known as the Equipment Leasing & Finance Association (ELFA), and has served for three years on its Legal Committee. He has also served as Chairman of the Illinois Region of the United Association of Equipment Leasing (UAEL), its Legal Committee, and its 1997 Legal Workshop. In 1998, he was elected to the UAEL Board of Directors, and in 2003-04 was the first attorney to become UAEL President.

Parallel to his work as a leasing attorney, Mr. Coston is a nationally recognized advocate for, and developer of, improved railroad passenger service in the United States. In 2000 Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle appointed him to the Amtrak Reform Council, where he served until the Council's statutory expiration in 2003. In 2004, Mr. Coston founded Corridor Capital LLC to provide lease-financing options to passenger-rail operating agencies seeking to acquire rolling stock fleets and maintenance facilities. A native of Chicago, Mr. Coston resides on the city's North Side with his wife, Patricia E. Rademacher, and three sons, Jay, Alex and William.

Patricia E. Rademacher

Ms. Rademacher is the managing partner of the Chicago office and serves as general counsel to numerous leasing companies.

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ms. Rademacher was graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in business from Michigan State University and earned her Juris Doctor degree with honors from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago. She began her legal career with Coston, Lande & Sapir. Her practice is concentrated in several areas: commercial litigation (including numerous matters involving millions of dollars in damages due to fraudlulent transactions alleged against several high-profile defendants); bankruptcy matters, including defense-of-adversary claims seeking millions of dollars for alleged prefence payments and/or recharacterization of leases; equipment-finance documentation; franchise financing litigation; healthcare litigation and bankrupcty; and workouts and restructurings. Ms. Rademacher is admitted to the Illinois State Bar; the Michigan State Bar; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the Federal Trial Bar, the Federal Bars for the Northern, Southern and Central Districts of Illinois; the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan; the Northern and Southern Districts of Indiana; the Northern and Southern Districts of Wisconsin; and the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio. She is an active member of the United Association of Equipment Lessors (UAEL), the Equipment Leasing & Finance Association (ELFA, formerly the Equipment Leasing Association [ELA]) as well as the Commercial Finance and Bankruptcy Law Committees of the Chicago Bar Association.

Ms. Rademacher served on a United Association of Equipment Leasing task force that drafted a code of ethics and regulations for lessors, vendors, lessees which became a part of the UAEL membership requirements.

Andrew A. Muchoney

A 1993 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law and holder of a Master of Arts degree in history from Northern Illinois University, Mr. Muchoney is a U.S. Army veteran and a 1992 graduate of the Army Reserve Primary Leadership Course. While in graduate school he served as a voting member of the Northern Illinois University Mass Transit Board, and during law school he served as a volunteer extern with the Legal Center for Immigrants and the Midwest Immigrants Rights Center. He began his legal career in 1993 with the Chicago firm of Otis & Otis, where he practiced commercial law before coming to work for Coston & Rademacher. At Coston & Rademacher, Mr. Muchoney concentrates his practice is the areas of business representation, complex commercial litigation, real estate, and bankrupcty. At Coston & Rademacher Mr. Muchoney has handled a number of major trials, including multiple jury trials, and has been the architect of numerous settlements of litigated cases, particularly heavily contested and complex business disputes. Mr. Muchoney is admitted to the State Bar of Illinois, the Federal Bar for the Northern, Central and Southern District Courts of Illinois, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and the Federal Trial Bar. Mr. Muchoney is an active member of the United Association of Equipment Lessors (UAEL), the Equipment Leasing & Finance Association (ELFA) formerly the Equipment Leasing Association [ELA]), as well as the Litigation, Real Estate and Commericial Finance Committees of the Chicago Bar Association.

Jennifer Rojas

A native of Chicago, Ms. Rojas was educated in the local public schools and was graduated from Lane Technical High School before entering the University of Illinois at Chicago, which awarded her a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1999. In 2002 she received her Juris Doctor degree, with honors, from The John Marshall Law School, which also awarded her a Master of Laws in June 2003. She was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 2003 and later to the Michigan Bar, as well as to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; the Federal Traial Bar, the Federal Bars for the Northern, Southern and Central Districts of Illinois; the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan; the Northern and Southern Districts of Indiana; the Northern and Southern Districts of Wisconsin; and the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio. Ms. Rojas is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association, the Hispanic Law Society, the United Association of Equipment Lessors (UAEL),the Equipment Leasing & Finance Association (ELFA--formerly Equipment Leasing Association), as well as the Commercial Finance and Bankruptcy Law committees of the Chicago Bar Association.

While handling a broad caseload of commercial litigation, commercial mortgage foreclosures and replevin matters at Coston & Rademacher, Ms. Rojas has focused her practice in the bankruptcy courts, successfully representing the interests of creditors in all varieties of complex claims and controversies.

Member of The General Bar
Coston & Rademacher, through its network of local counsel, can administer nationwide portfolios of collection/litigation accounts. We can set up specific fee structures to meet each client's needs.