Roger L. Rutherford joined Sorling Northrup in May of 2024 after practicing law in Central Illinois for more than 40 years serving individuals, small businesses, and local governmental entities.

Mr. Rutherford graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (B.S. Journalism, 1970) and Valparaiso University School of Law (J.D. 1974), after successful internships with the Illinois House of Representatives and United States Senator Charles H. Percy in Washington D.C.  He is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association as well as the Sangamon and Macoupin County Bar Associations, and has served on numerous local boards, including the local community college, Salvation Army, and Sojourn Shelter & Services, Inc. advisory boards.

He is a strong advocate of a complete estate plan and has represented hundreds of Central Illinois families, allowing them to feel secure about their futures while assisting them with their estate and financial planning. Helping families understand and implement trusts as an integral part of estate planning to provide for disabled children, an elderly parent, a favorite charity or a financially challenged child or grandchild are among his specialties. He has worked with families with modest estates to multi-million-dollar estates with the same energy and enthusiasm.

Having grown up on a Central Illinois farm, his farm background has enabled him to relate to many farm families to help them implement their estate plans, transfer ownership of their real estate into trust, and to assist many of them with tax-deferred exchanges of real estate when buying or selling farmland interests. He has assisted farm families in negotiating and drafting several multi-million-dollar farm real estate transactions in various Central Illinois counties.

Mr. Rutherford has represented numerous municipalities, water commissions, sanitary districts and fire protection districts, serving as general counsel and as special counsel and bond counsel in public financings. He has guided clients through the building of firehouses, village halls, water plants, and water distribution systems.

Mr. Rutherford is licensed to practice in Illinois and is admitted to the bar of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.  He is available to speak on estate planning and estate administration topics. He is also available to assist with the preparation of wills, trusts, and other estate planning documents, as well as assist with estate administration including probate as well as real estate matters.