Kathleen Wrigley Pletsch

About Kathleen
Kathleen Wrigley Pletsch was born and raised in Decatur and joined Samuels Miller as an associate attorney in May 2023. In 2012, Kathleen graduated from Meridian High School in Macon, Illinois. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Millikin University in 2016, where she majored in Political Science and Spanish and graduated Summa Cum Laude. Kathleen attended the University of Illinois College of Law, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with her Juris Doctorate in May 2019. She was admitted to practice law in Illinois by its Supreme Court in November of 2019 and is also admitted to the practice before the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois.

Kathleen’s practice includes representing individuals and families with regard to wills, trusts, and estate planning, as well as trust and estate administration and litigation. Her real estate practice includes residential and farmland real estate transactions and litigation. Kathleen also represents landlords in drafting leases, advising with regard to landlord-tenant rights and responsibilities, and pursuing evictions. She also counsels private sector business clients on entity formation, ongoing operations, and business litigation. Kathleen worked as an attorney for a local municipal government, and subsequently has gained experience and knowledge in municipal law, including ongoing routine business, drafting and enforcing ordinances, and reviewing FOIA requests and issues regarding OMA.

Kathleen is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association and Central Illinois Estate Planning Council. Kathleen is a Board Director for the Decatur Bar Association. She previously served as a Trustee on the Decatur Public Library Board of Trustees and as President on the Decatur & Macon County Animal Shelter Foundation Board. She also serves as Vice President on the House Corporation Board for Tri Delta at Millikin University and is a member of the Tri Delta Decatur Alumnae Chapter. Kathleen lives in Decatur with her husband (Austin), their twins, and their dog Dozer.

Joshua J. Dubbelde

About Joshua
Joshua J. Dubbelde joined Samuels Miller in 2011 and became a partner with the firm in January 2017. He graduated with honors from the University of Illinois College of Law in 2011, having previously received a B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2004. He is licensed to practice law in the State of Illinois and also admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois.

Joshua’s practice includes representing individuals and families with regard to wills, trusts, and estate planning; trust and estate administration and litigation; and residential and farm real estate transactions and litigation. His real estate practice includes zoning, easement, and nuisance dispute representation. Joshua also represents public sector municipal and local government bodies with ongoing routine business and with complex transactional matters; and he counsels private sector business clients on entity formation, ongoing operations, sales/mergers, and business litigation. He was selected in 2019, 2020, and 2021 as an Emerging Lawyer and in 2022 as a Leading Lawyer by Leading Lawyers Magazine.

Prior to law school, Joshua worked for approximately four years as a chemist and researcher for several large chemical and agricultural companies. Although his shift from scientist to attorney may be an uncommon one, he finds that the analytical and deductive skills necessary for both professions have allowed for a rewarding career change. Joshua sits on the Board of Directors of the Richland Community College Foundation; he previously served on the Board of Directors of Webster-Cantrell Hall and he is a Past President of the Central Illinois Estate Planning Council. He is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association and the Decatur Bar Association.

Craig W. Runyon

About Craig
Craig W. Runyon joined Samuels Miller upon his graduation from law school and became a partner in 2014. Craig graduated from the Southern Illinois University School of Law (cum laude) in 2008. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Finance (with honors) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2005. During law school, Craig was a Taylor Mattis Fellow, a member of the Southern Illinois University Law Journal, and had his case note selected for publication in the Journal.

Craig prepares wills, trusts, and powers of attorney and assists executors, administrators, and trustees with the administration of probate estates and trusts. He also counsels clients in connection with the purchase and sale of residential, commercial, and agricultural real estate, as well as other real estate matters, such as partitions, real estate tax exemptions, and leases. Craig has been a speaker at the Illinois State Bar Association’s annual Agricultural Law Conference (February 2018, Topic: Involuntary Partition: Drawing a Line in the Dirt) and authored a chapter on farm leases in the 2022 edition of IICLE Handbook titled Farming Law: Property Issues.

Craig represents financial institutions in state court and federal bankruptcy court and also provides counsel to these clients in areas including regulatory compliance, contract negotiation, consumer lending, commercial lending, and trusts and estates law. Craig assists financial institutions, as well as other creditors, with routine and complex collection matters and has experience with foreclosures, mechanics’ liens, bankruptcy proceedings, and all manner of post-judgment collection methods.

Craig assists business clients with organizing and maintaining corporations and limited liability companies, including not-for-profit corporations. He has successfully obtained 501(c)(3) exempt status for both private foundations and public charities. Craig also routinely advises business clients on all manner of employment-related issues, assisting them with employment agreements, employee handbooks and policies, non-compete agreements, and severance agreements, among other items.

Craig has been named as an “Emerging Lawyer” by Leading Lawyers each year since 2015. The Emerging Lawyer designation is reserved for the top two percent of Illinois attorneys who are 40 years old or younger or who have been practicing law for 10 years or less. Emerging Lawyers are selected based on a survey of their peers and review by the Leading Lawyers Advisory Board. Craig has been recognized in the areas of Trust, Will, & Estate Planning Law, Banking, and Creditors’ Rights.

Craig’s significant decisions include: State Bank of Arthur v. Miller (In re: Miller), 2012 WL 3589426, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 116275 (C.D. Ill. 2012); Huggins v. Harrison, 2013 IL App (4th) 120956-U and 2017 IL App (4th) 1700026-U; and Alward v. Jacob Holding of Ontario, L.L.C., 2019 IL App (5th) 180332.

Craig is the former Chairperson of the board of directors of Heritage Behavioral Health Center, Inc., a Past President of the Central Illinois Estate Planning Council, and a former member of the board of directors of the Decatur Bar Association. Craig lives in Decatur with his wife, Kelli (Smith) Runyon, and their two sons.

Scott E. Garwood

About Scott
Mr. Garwood joined Samuels Miller in 2002 upon graduation from law school. He became a partner in 2008.

Mr. Garwood was raised in Stonington, Illinois. While growing up, he worked for his family’s corn and soybean seed production company beginning at age 11. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture (high honors, 1999) and Juris Doctor (cum laude, 2002).

Mr. Garwood concentrates his practice primarily in the areas of business and commercial law, probate, wills, trusts and estate planning, real estate and municipal law. He represents buyers and sellers in asset purchase, stock purchase and merger transactions in the banking, retail, trucking, manufacturing, processing, and service industries. He assists clients with organizing and maintaining corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies. Mr. Garwood counsels executors, administrators and trustees in the administration of estates and trusts throughout Illinois and regularly prepares and files United States and Illinois Estate, Gift and Generation Skipping Transfer Tax Returns. He also works with citizen and non-citizen clients to develop and implement estate plans including drafting simple and complex wills, trust agreements, charitable foundations, and other arrangements. He has represented buyers and sellers of residential, commercial and agricultural real estate, including transactions involving Section 1031 exchanges. Mr. Garwood also serves as general counsel for the City of Macon and the Villages of Moweaqua and Stonington.

Mr. Garwood is a member of the Illinois and Decatur and Macon County Bar Associations and the Central Illinois Estate Planning Council (Past President). He has served on the Boards of Directors of numerous charitable entities and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of St. Teresa High School. He has also served on the Boards of Directors of a community bank and its holding company.

Mr. Garwood has been a speaker for the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, the Decatur SCORE Chapter 296 and Millikin University’s First Step FastTrac course.

Mr. Garwood lives in Mt. Zion with wife Amber, a Family Nurse Practitioner, and sons Owen, Alex and Gavin.

James T. Jackson

About James
James T. Jackson has been practicing law with Samuels, Miller, Schroeder, Jackson & Sly, LLP since 1988. During that time he has been a Member of the Illinois State Bar Association, serving as chair of several committees, including Tort Law Section Council; Insurance Law Section Council; and the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Committee. Mr. Jackson has also served as Co-Chair of the Student Affairs Section (NACUA) 1998-2000, member of Defense Research Institute/Illinois Association of Defense Counsel 1995-present, and member of Leading Lawyers Network (Illinois) 2005-present.

Mr. Jackson is involved in his local community, previously serving as an Elder at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and Chairman of the congregation. He has also served as a Board member of Macon Resources and the Decatur Area Arts Council. He currently serves on the Board of Regents for Concordia College in Selma, Alabama

Darrell A. Woolums

About Darrell
Darrell A. Woolums was born in Decatur, Illinois and is a member of Leading Lawyer Network. Representative clients include: Richland Community College, The Gerber State Bank, and First National Bank and Trust of Clinton. Significant decisions include: Foulke v. Illinois Central Railroad (largest judgment in history of Macon County); and Estate of Whittle v. Commissioner, 994 F.2d 379.

Keith W. Casteel

About Keith
Keith W. Casteel graduated from Purdue University with honors in Industrial Engineering where he was a member of Iron Key and recipient of the G.A. Ross Award as the Outstanding Graduating Senior Man. He also received the Illinois State Bar Association Lincoln Award; was a member of the Illinois Secretary of State’s Corporation Acts Advisory Committee from 2003-2005; is a member of the Institute for Illinois Business Law; is a member of the Fourth District Committee on Character and Fitness of the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar; is a member of Leading Lawyer’s Network (2014 Leading Lawyers profile of Keith W. Casteel); was selected as one of the top 10 leading agricultural lawyers in Illinois by Leading Lawyers Magazine for 2014 and 2015; is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association Agricultural Law Committee, serving as Committee Vice-Chair for 2020-21 and Committee Chair for 2021-22; is a member of the American Agricultural Law Association serving on committees for awards and membership; is a board member of Land of Lincoln Legal Aid, Inc. (Treasurer 2018 – ___); was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Greater Decatur Chamber of Commerce; and Past President of the Decatur Bar Association.

Keith represents business entities of all types, including profit and not-for-profit corporations and limited liability companies, in all aspects of operations including formations, contractual issues, governance, purchases and sales, and employment matters. He also represents owners, sellers, and buyers of farmland throughout Illinois and provides advice concerning managing, using, and leasing farmland for various purposes.

He also provides advice on wills, trusts and estate planning, and prepares necessary documents to implement such plans.

Keith and his wife Kathy, a registered nurse, live in Decatur, Illinois. They have three sons: Ryan, with an electrical engineering degree from Purdue University and a Masters Degree in Security Policy from George Washington University; Seth, with a fine arts degree in film and television from Chapman University; and Clayton, with a finance degree from Indiana University and a Master of Business Administration Degree from Georgetown University.

Mark E. Jackson

About Mark
Mark E. Jackson graduated from Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in economics. He graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1974 with a Juris Doctor degree. While in law school, he published an article in the Illinois Bar Journal entitled “Governmental Immunity – A Plan for Legislative Action” (Illinois Bar Journal, February 1973). He is a member of Defense Research Institute and Leading Lawyers Network.

Mr. Jackson has been active in the Decatur community, having served on many boards and as President of Webster-Cantrell Hall, The Decatur Club, and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. He currently serves on the Board of The Community Foundation of Decatur/Macon County and as an elder at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.