Chicago Real Estate Closings with Adam Gurney, Esq. — Title Agents Podcast Ep95
Episode 95 of the Title Agents Podcast features a deep conversation with Adam Gurney, founder of Gurney Law Group — a Super Lawyers-recognized Chicago real estate attorney whose firm has handled thousands of Chicago, North Shore, and Western Suburb closings. Host Mo Choumil, founder of Alltech National Title, walks through how Illinois’s attorney-state model actually works in practice — what title agents need to understand, where deals break down, and what makes the difference between a vendor relationship and a real partnership.
This is a working show notes recap with the strongest takeaways and direct quotes from the episode. Watch the full episode on YouTube below.
Listen on: Spotify · Apple Podcasts · YouTube
About the guest
Adam Gurney founded Gurney Law Group in 2015 after acquiring his predecessor’s solo practice. He grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio in a family of lawyers, started practicing real estate law in 2013 under solo practitioner Eric Miles, and took over the firm when Miles transitioned to a real estate broker role in California. Today, Gurney Law Group serves Chicago, the North Shore, and the Western Suburbs, with a heavy specialization in residential closings and a growing commercial practice.
Adam is recognized by Super Lawyers — an honor reserved for the top 5% of Illinois attorneys through peer review — and is widely referenced in the Chicago real estate community as a partner-attorney for top-producing realtors and brokerages.
Six key takeaways
1. The Illinois attorney review provision is the entire game
Every Illinois real estate contract includes an attorney review provision: after the contract is signed, both parties have five business days to have an attorney review and either approve, cancel, or propose modifications. As Adam put it:
“You think you have a contract in place. Congratulations. Signed contract. You’re offer one out of 20 offers. But now you still have to get through this attorney period and the inspection period.”
Realtors negotiate the contract; attorneys take over from contract to closing. Brokers value attorney involvement because it keeps them out of the territory of practicing law — drafting modifications, negotiating legal language — where they could face liability.
2. Tax prorations are the most common attorney-review modification
In Illinois, property taxes are paid in arrears, which means the seller owes the buyer a closing credit based on potential tax liability. As Adam explained:
“It’s the attorney’s job to figure out what’s an appropriate credit. Sometimes we can’t agree on that, we just agree on an escrow agreement — we’ll wait for that bill to come out and address it after closing.”
Other near-universal modifications: cure periods for default, appraisal language (the standard contract is silent on low appraisals), damages limited to earnest money to remove litigation threat, and post-possession terms when sellers stay in the property after closing.
3. The most common preventable title-agent mistake is sitting on issues
Adam was direct about what trips up otherwise capable title agents:
“Just not addressing all of the title issues that are in front of them in a timely fashion for closing. You might sit on things a little bit longer, or maybe you’re dealing with an estate or a divorce and you need court documents, or somebody might have a mortgage payoff but they might also have an IDA loan and you didn’t quite get that in time for closing.”
The second mistake is the inverse of the first: attorneys relying too heavily on the title company without doing their own due diligence — and then both sides miss something at the last minute.
4. Title examiners aren’t lawyers, and that matters
“Title examiners know title, but they don’t know everything about the law. The way a title examiner is going to look at a title issue sometimes might be different than the way an attorney looks at it. So the attorney oversight is crucial.”
This is the structural reason Illinois requires attorneys at all — the law changes regularly, and a title examiner’s read of an estate, probate, or chain-of-title issue isn’t the same as a lawyer’s. Both perspectives are needed; neither substitutes for the other.
5. The “real estate broker title commission” model is the IDFPR’s current Wild West
Chicago’s title industry has been working through a years-long question: can real estate brokers earn a piece of the title fee? The history Adam walked through:
- First, brokerages owning title companies (double-dipping the deal)
- Then, title companies finding ways to compensate agents directly
- Then, brokers being told they could be “title agents” if they did certain things
“You start ending up with brokers doing title services and they don’t really know anything about title, and they end up with a lot of liability on their hands in the middle of some lawsuits. So now everybody is going back to the drawing board and trying to find creative ways to compensate brokers.”
Adam expects more clarity from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) in the next year, but for now the regulatory environment remains in flux. RESPA compliance is the floor, but RESPA-compliant doesn’t always mean operationally clean.
6. Service is the only real differentiator
When Mo asked Adam how he stands out in a Chicago market full of real estate attorneys, the answer was direct:
“Service, communication, reliability, consistency — especially in the busiest times. We just our thing is service, service, service. We deliver with service. We’re going to be always responding quick. Our paralegals have 10 plus years of experience. We never miss deadlines or closings. Our closings never get delayed because of us.”
The same standard runs the other direction. When Mo asked what it takes for a title agent to graduate from “vendor” to “trusted partner,” Adam’s answer became the defining quote of the episode:
“Service first and foremost — responsiveness, communication, fast title commitments. But if you really want to be a trusted partner: I need to know that when we’re in a jam, you’re going to help me get out of it. Find ways to get the deal done, not find ways to not get the deal done. I will never accept ‘sorry, we can’t’ as an answer in the title world. There’s always a solution or a workaround.”
Topics covered (with timestamps)
- 00:00 — Cold open and intro
- 00:30 — Adam’s background: Shaker Heights origins, family of lawyers, took over Eric Miles’s practice in 2015
- 02:55 — How closings work in Illinois at a high level: attorney-state structure, realtor vs attorney roles, attorney review provision
- 05:30 — Common attorney review modifications: cure period, appraisal language, default damages, tax prorations, post-possession, investment property access, tenant handling
- 09:30 — Condo closings and why they generate extra contract modifications
- 10:00 — The most preventable title-agent mistakes: sitting on issues, attorneys relying too heavily on title company, missing IDA loans
- 11:30 — Title examiner vs attorney perspectives and why attorney oversight is structurally necessary
- 12:30 — IDFPR regulatory landscape: broker compensation in title, the “Wild West” period, RESPA compliance, lawsuit risk for brokers acting as title agents
- 20:30 — How Gurney Law Group grows: referrals from realtors, managing broker relationships, CE seminars, title company partnerships
- 23:00 — Differentiation in a crowded market: service, communication, paralegal experience, never missing deadlines
- 25:00 — AI and automation in legal practice: Smokeball + Archie AI bot, why AI augments rather than replaces, paralegals learning to operate AI as a competitive edge
- 29:30 — One manual step Adam would eliminate: in-person notary requirements (the RON restrictions are too tight for non-trivial deed corrections)
- 31:00 — Vendor vs trusted partner: the defining “I will never accept sorry, we can’t” quote
- 33:30 — Favorite book and closing wisdom: “When you’re alone, you’re in good company” and “The world meets nobody halfway”
Why this episode matters for title agents
If you handle Chicago files from outside Illinois, this conversation is the cleanest one-hour explanation you’ll find of how the attorney-state model actually works. If you’re an Illinois title agent working with Chicago attorneys, it’s a useful audit of where the relationship breaks down and what high-end attorney practices actually need from a title partner.
The thread that runs through every section: title agents who treat themselves as a vendor invite a different relationship than title agents who treat themselves as a counterpart to closing counsel. The vendor model produces transactional partnerships and constant friction. The counterpart model produces the kind of long-term referral flow that compounds across years.
Connect with the guest
- Adam Gurney, Esq. · Gurney Law Group
- Website: gurneylawgroup.com
- LinkedIn: Adam Gurney
Read more
- The Chicago Real Estate Closing Playbook — full pillar guide for Illinois attorneys
- Chicago Attorneys — Alltech National Title
- All episodes of the Title Agents Podcast
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