Mr. Howard concentrates his practice in business, commercial and trust litigation, and bankruptcy law.  He is admitted to the Illinois Bar, the Michigan Bar, the United States District Court for the Northern, Central and Southern Districts of Illinois, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.

Mr. Howard graduated with an A.B. in History from Princeton University in 1972.  After teaching high school for one year, he attended the University of Notre Dame Law School, receiving his Juris Doctor in 1976.

Mr. Howard is a member of the American Bar Association and its sections on Litigation and Business Law.  He is also a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Illinois State Bar Association (Sections on Commercial, Banking and Bankruptcy Law and Federal Civil Practice) and the Peoria County Bar Association.  Mr. Howard was a member of the Peoria County Board from 1982 through 1992.  A Trustee of the Greater Peoria Sanitary District since 1996, he has been President of the District since 1998.

His publications include, "Financing the Dealer," published in Advising Illinois Financial Institutions , Ill. Inst. of Cont. Legal Ed., 2002; "Illinois Mortgage Liens in Bankruptcy," Financing Real Estate Transactions, Ill. Inst. of  Cont. Legal Ed., 1996; and "Agricultural Financing Under Revised Article 9," Ill. Inst. of  Cont. Legal Ed., 2004.

Mr. Howard has been active in several community organizations including the W.D. Boyce Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the Peoria Association of Retarded Citizens and the Girl Scouts of America - Kickapoo Council (President 1996-98).