Certified Business Enterprises
James “Jim” DiChristofano:
Counsel to MBE, WBE, DBE, and VBE Firms
Formed. Certified. Represented.
DiChristofano & Associates LLC builds certified business enterprises from the ground up and stays with them. Attorney James “Jim” DiChristofano forms the entity, carries it through certification, and then serves as the company's lawyer for everything that follows.
Three jobs, usually three different people
A certified business enterprise is normally assembled by committee. One lawyer files the articles and hands over a form operating agreement. A consultant fills out the certification application months later. A third person, hired after the first contract goes sideways, reads the paperwork for the first time and discovers that none of it was written by anyone who understood the rest.
That is how a company ends up with an ownership structure that undercuts its own certification, a certification application that describes a business the operating agreement does not permit, and a subcontract that quietly signs away the control the certifying agency requires it to keep.
Jim DiChristofano handles all three, because they are not three problems. The entity documents, the certification file, and the contracts a certified firm signs all answer the same question: who actually owns and controls this company, and can you prove it. Draft them together and they hold. Draft them apart and someone will find the seam.
Formation through certification through the work that follows
The firm represents companies seeking and holding certification as Minority Business Enterprises, Women's Business Enterprises, Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, Veteran-owned Business Enterprises, and related designations, from startups filing their first articles of organization to established companies operating on public contracts.
Scope of the work
What the firm handles
Formation & structure
Entity selection, articles, operating agreements, bylaws, and shareholder agreements. Ownership and control provisions are drafted with the certification standard in view from the first draft, not retrofitted after an application is questioned. Capital contributions, management authority, and transfer restrictions are written so the paper matches the company.
Certification & recertification
Applications and supporting documentation, personal net worth and eligibility questions, site visits and agency interviews, no-change affidavits and annual recertification, responses to requests for additional information, denials and administrative appeals, and defense of decertification proceedings.
Outside general counsel
Prime contracts and subcontracts, teaming and joint venture agreements, mentor and protégé arrangements, employment and independent contractor documents, commercial leases, collections, payment disputes, compliance responses, and litigation when a matter cannot be resolved any other way.
Certified work on public projects
Participation goals, good faith effort documentation, commercially useful function questions, pass-through and front allegations, prime and subcontractor disputes on goal-bearing contracts, and the contract language that decides who carries the risk when an agency changes its mind.
Already certified and something is wrong?
A recertification stalled. A site visit that raised questions. An agency asking whether your company performs a commercially useful function. A prime that will not pay. These matters move on agency timelines, and the window to respond is rarely generous.
In practice
Certified businesses the firm represents
The following clients have given their permission to be named. Jim DiChristofano serves as outside general counsel to each.
Sierra Public Safety Group LLC
Certified MBE. An IT managed services and technology integration firm serving the public safety sector, with a client portfolio spanning Fortune 500 corporations and government agencies. The firm formed Sierra, obtained its certification through the City of Chicago, and serves as its outside general counsel. sierrapublicsafetygroup.com
Align Consulting and Management LLC
Certified MBE, WBE, and DBE. Founded in 2022 by president Tamie Perea, who spent thirty years with the City of Chicago across Aviation, Budget, CDOT, the Mayor's Office, OEMC, and PSA. Align provides program and project management, facility management, AV design and support, and staff augmentation, and works with contractors and public agencies on City of Chicago projects. The firm formed Align, obtained its certifications, and serves as its outside general counsel. alignconsultingmgmt.com
Vertical Industries, Inc.
Certified MBE and DBE. A supplier of goods to government agencies and a participant in construction work. The firm obtained Vertical's certification through the City of Chicago and serves as its outside general counsel.
These three companies are examples, not the extent of the practice. DiChristofano & Associates LLC represents certified business enterprises across MBE, WBE, DBE, VBE, and related programs, from small companies to large ones. Client names appear with permission. Prior matters and prior certifications do not guarantee or predict the outcome of any application, appeal, or dispute.
Where this work overlaps
Certified firms and the construction chain
Certified business enterprises live and die on public and private construction work, where participation goals are set, subcontracts are awarded, and payment moves slowly down a chain of parties who each have a reason to hold it. The firm represents owners, developers, general contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers, which means it reads a goal-bearing subcontract knowing exactly what the party on the other side of it is thinking.
Everything else
The rest of the practice
A certified business is still a business. It signs leases, buys property, chases receivables, loses a key employee, gets sued, and eventually needs someone to try or appeal a case. All of that is handled under the same roof.
Starting a certified business, or fighting to keep one certified?
Describe your company and your situation. Please leave out confidential or time-sensitive information until representation is confirmed in writing.
Contact the firmThis page describes the types of matters DiChristofano & Associates LLC handles. It is not a promise of any particular result, and it does not state or imply certification as a specialist in any field of law. Certification as a business enterprise is granted by the relevant certifying agency, not by this firm.