Paralegal Studies Faculty

Carol Carlson-Nofsinger

Carol Carlson-Nofsinger is an Asst. Professor and the Coordinator of Paralegal Studies at Harper College. Carol practiced in the areas of real estate law (including zoning), corporate law, employment law, and contract law for 28 years. Carol retired from the practice of law in 2014 when she obtained a Lecturer Position, which she held for 4 years, at the College of DuPage. She has taught, as an adjunct instructor, a variety of subjects to paralegals in three different ABA approved Paralegal Studies Programs, since 1986, including at Roosevelt University, College of DuPage and Harper College. Most recently, Carol has taught the following courses to paralegals: Internship in Paralegal Studies, Real Property Law, Contract Law, and Introduction to Paralegal Studies.

Carol is also an Illinois Licensed Real Estate Pre-Licensure Instructor who has taught Real Estate Broker Pre-License classes for over 20 years. She co-authored Illinois Proficiency Exam Prep: Broker to Managing Broker, 1st Edition and Illinois Proficiency Exam Prep: Salesperson to Broker, 1st Edition for Dearborn Real Estate Education. Carol has reviewed and contributed materials to the textbook used in the real estate courses here at Harper College called Modern Real Estate Practice in Illinois by Galaty, Allaway, and Kyle. Carol has reviewed and written online real estate courses for two national course providers. Carol also wrote four of the real estate courses currently offered at Harper College. She received her B.A. from Elmhurst College and a J.D. from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law.

Amy Adler   

Amy Adler focuses her practice on intellectual property and contract law. She provides legal advice on matters involving copyrights, trademarks, and Internet law.  Amy aids her clients in establishing, maintaining, and enforcing their intellectual property rights.

Prior to joining Davis McGrath, Amy worked in-house at a large corporation. She gained experience in analyzing, drafting, and negotiating a variety of agreements for local and international clients. 

While attending John Marshall Law School, Amy concentrated her studies on intellectual property and contract law.  She received a Certificate in Intellectual Property Law and CALI Awards for attaining the highest grade in her Contracts I and Intellectual Property courses. She volunteered as a contracts instructor for the JMLS Academic Enhancement Program, served as the Symposium Editor on the Review of Intellectual Property Law, and gained hands-on experience in the John Marshall Trademark Clinic.  Amy also gained experience in other areas of the law while she worked in the Pro Bono Clinic Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program and as an extern for the Honorable John P. Kirby in the Law Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County. As a student, she had the unique opportunity to attend the Fifth Session of the United Nations Open-Ended Working Group on Aging as a representative and researcher for the law school.

John M. Driscoll

John M. Driscoll has been an instructor in Harper College’s Paralegal program for 42 years. At Harper he has taught Federal Income Tax I and II and Litigation. Over this span at Harper he has taught over 2,000 students, most of whom took on careers as paralegals, but many others who went on to law school and one student who became mayor of a north suburban town.

A graduate of DePaul University with a B.S. in Commerce majoring in Accounting, he is also a C.P.A. He obtained his law degree from John Marshall Law School and is licensed to practice in Illinois, the Federal Trial Bench in the Northern District of Illinois, United States Tax Court, and the United States Court of Appeals–Seventh Circuit. As a practicing trial attorney, his area of concentration is in medical malpractice and complex commercial litigation.

Diane Gordon

Diane received her undergraduate degree in English from the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana and her law degree from the University of Iowa, College of Law.  She has worked as an attorney for over 30 years in many areas of law, including practicing law in Iowa, Texas, and Illinois.  For the past 15 years she has owned and operated her own law practice, focusing in the areas of bankruptcy and consumer law. Diane had taught Bankruptcy Law in the paralegal studies program at Harper College since 2015, in addition to teaching Family Law in the Fall, 2020.  Diane also is an adjunct faculty member at The College of Lake County, where she has taught Employment Law and Alternative Dispute Resolutions. Diane also is a tutor for the paralegal studies program at Harper and is a writing tutor at the College of Lake County. 

Margaret Hickey-Marco

Margaret is a native of Yonkers, New York.  She received her bachelor's degree from New York University in Politics and her law degree from Cornell Law School.  After law school she practiced litigation concentrating in Product Liability.  She then worked as a Research Consultant at Lexis-Nexis.  She has been working at Harper since 2011. 

Charles Knittle

Charles Knittle is a practicing attorney in the Chicago area, representing primarily corporations and other business organizations for many years.  He has also taught a variety of law courses, including torts, contracts, litigation, corporate and securities law, business law, estate planning and real estate. Chuck has served on the board or directors of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce the Illinois Retail Merchants Association and chaired the government affairs committee of the National Retail Federation for eight years.  He was educated at the University of Notre Dame (graduating in the upper fifth of his class) and the IIT Chicago Kent College of Law (graduating in the upper sixth of his class).  Chuck also served as an officer in the United States Air Force for three years. A native of the Chicago area, his interests include sailing, reading, racquetball and travel.

Monica Shirley

Monica Shirley is an Instructor in the Paralegal Studies Department at William H. Rainey Harper College. She began her tenure at Harper as a Diverse Faculty Fellow in 2017. Monica holds a J.D. from The John Marshall Law School, a M.A. in education from National Louis University, and a B.A. in English Literature from Loyola University Chicago. As a Diverse Faculty Fellow, Monica was brought to Harper's campus under a program designed to give underrepresented individuals a chance to teach and to learn about community college infrastructure. Prior to coming to Harper, Monica worked in education holding various roles, including Assistant Dean of Students and College Access Coordinator. Monica loves being a paralegal instructor and always knew she wanted to fuse her educational background and law degree. Monica’s passions include law, education, diversity, equity, and inclusion. As a result, she has given talks about representation in the classroom and how it contributes to student success. She has made it a personal commitment to illustrate how law and diversity intersect and to provide teachable moments inside and outside of her classroom.

Monica loves the law and decided to go to law school because she believes that the law informs everything we do. She also believes that it is better and beneficial to be knowledgeable about different legal aspects than not. She believes that all students have the capacity to learn and likes to give real world examples in the classroom to illustrate various legal topics.

Guy R. Youman

- Managing the law practice since 1994.
- Concentrating in various areas of general civil law including Probate, Trusts & Estate Planning, Taxation, Litigation, Real Estate and Business Law since 1988.
- Has experience in Probate/Guardianship Courts in McHenry, Cook, Lake, DuPage, Kane, Will, DeKalb, Boone and Winnebago Counties.
- Has been a court appointed GAL in several Chicago area Circuit Courts including Cook, Lake and McHenry Counties.
- Has been teaching Probate, Trusts and Estates at the Harper community college paralegal program since 1999.
- Has a book called “Legacy” published in 1998 and has been published in various periodicals on the subject.
- Sits on various boards for Schools, Churches, Nursing Homes, Park Districts and Private Foundations.
- Has been a key note speaker in Probate, Trusts and Estate Planning for various Bar Associations, Financial Advisors, Archdiocese, different Levels of Governments, Nursing Homes, Paralegal Associations, Insurance Companies, Realtors and other private organizations.
- Active chair in the Civil Section of the McHenry County Bar Association.
- Active with the Circuit Court of McHenry County including revamping the online forms for Guardianship and Probate, development of GAL training and input in the structure of the Clerk’s electronic filing and other systems from the attorney’s perspective.