Katriina McGuire

Practice Areas

Katriina McGuire helps clients navigate challenging land use and zoning issues throughout the City of Chicago and surrounding suburbs, paving the way for successful developments. She is the Managing Partner of the firm’s Chicago office.

As a dedicated and highly motivated business partner to a diverse range of clients, Katriina cares deeply about her clients’ success. She shares their passions and concerns, and works proactively to build successful development strategies and anticipate roadblocks in the development approval process.

She combines a deep understanding of highly technical and constantly evolving regulations with the strong relationships she’s built with zoning and economic development departments across the Chicago region. With this unique focus – on process and on people – Katriina guides clients through complex regulatory, community and political frameworks and provides a clear pathway to municipal land use approvals.

Katriina is particularly sought out for her mastery of land use entitlements in the City of Chicago and surrounding suburbs. From single-family homes to large-scale mixed-use master planned developments, Katriina advocates for a broad range of clients before the City of Chicago and suburban plan commissions, zoning and economic development committees, zoning boards of appeals and village boards in all matters related to land use and zoning. She has represented clients in a broad range of industries, including commercial and residential real estate, banking, wireless telecommunications, renewable energy, hospitality, manufacturing, education, health care and entertainment.

Katriina also provides zoning analysis and entitlement due diligence on properties across the country.

She negotiates development agreements related to TIF, development incentives, special service areas, special assessments, right-of-way agreements and utility services.

Katriina also counsels cannabis-related businesses with respect to zoning and land use approvals throughout Illinois. She has spoken at cannabis business conferences about zoning and land use issues specific to cannabis dispensaries. She previously served on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Cannabis Industry Working Group.

The daughter of a Finnish government employee, Katriina is fluent in Finnish and spent her childhood in Finland, Romania, the Philippines and Austria before moving to the U.S. to attend college.

Katriina is chair of Thompson Coburn’s Women’s Initiative Steering Committee.