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Partnerships with best-in-class original restaurant concepts that have stood the test of time.

Michael E. Fox

Michael E. Fox is a Chicago native and corporate attorney. He and his law firm – Fox, Swibel, Levin & Carroll – have represented Richard Melman, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Inc. and their restaurants throughout Melman’s business career, Gerard Centioli since 1984, and ICON since its establishment in 1999.

Mr. Fox lettered in basketball in high school, and graduated with high honors in Accounting from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. He became a C.P.A. In 1959, and graduated from Harvard Law School and passed the Illinois Bar Exam in 1962.

With the exception of 1965-68 when he was a staff attorney on the Congressional Joint Tax Committee in Washington, D.C., Mr. Fox has spent his entire business career practicing tax, corporate, transactional and restaurant law in Chicago.

Mr. Fox first met Mr. Melman in 1979 at a business meeting, after which Mr. Melman asked Mr. Fox if he would represent him in a plan to open a restaurant. Their business and personal relationship has continued uninterrupted ever since.

Mr. Fox first met Mr. Centioli in 1984 while representing LEYE in its Ed Debevic’s joint venture with Collins Food International. They worked together in that venture and others, including Maggiano’s, Corner Bakery, and finally ICON.

Mr. Fox has two children.