Peter M. Donat

Pete was born in Aurora and lived in Batavia all his life. He graduated from Batavia High School in the class of 1960 and went to the University of Illinois to study engineering but transferred to political science with the idea of going to law school.

The Vietnam War interrupted his plans and he was drafted into the Army after a semester of law school. He went back to U of I for law school after serving in the army for two years, seven months.

Pete took the bar exam in January 1974 and started practicing with his father after that.

Pete did a variety of legal work including criminal, divorce, and real estate. He was most comfortable with criminal and divorce cases. His father helped him with the practice, but he specialized in probate and estate law.

Pete had his very first criminal case as a lawyer go to the US Supreme Court, which started with a trial in Kane County and a challenge to the constitutionality of a statute.
After losing in the trial and appellate court, Pete and his father found a way to file a jurisdictional statement. A hangup came up with Pete not having practiced law in three years (because of the Army), but he got permission to practice with his father's help. The Supreme Court ultimately decided not to take the case, and the last decision stood but Pete loved the experience and what he learned so early on in his career.