Joliet attorney Carey retires, looks back at Rialto years

JOLIET – This will be the first year since the formation of the authority that governs the Rialto Square Theatre that the theater will be without the legal services of Thomas Carey.

Carey retired from his law practice at the end of 2015 after a career that spanned 40 years, and through most of that career he has served as the Rialto’s attorney – much of it without charging for his work.

“With their financial struggles, I decided they would be my pro bono project,” said Carey, noting lawyers are required to do some form of legal service at no charge each year. “That has been the case since the mid-’90s.”

Rialto board members at a recent meeting expressed their appreciation for Carey’s work through the decades.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t know that Tom was totally pro bono,” said James Smith, a Rialto board member since 1996. “I can’t tell you how many times we prevailed on Tom Carey.”

New board Chairman Dan Vera said Carey has done “an excellent job” for the Rialto since the entity that governs the Rialto was formed in 1978.

Most of Carey’s legal career actually has been devoted to real estate law. His clients included Spring Realty, the Joliet real estate agency and home builder that was very active during the housing boom years.

His career began in 1975 as a prosecutor in the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Carey was just a few years into his career, working on the staff of the Legal Department at the City of Joliet, when he became involved with the Rialto. The city with the state of Illinois created the Will County Metropolitan Exposition and Auditorium Authority, the formal name of the entity typically called the Rialto board. Carey was the staff attorney assigned to draw up the papers that transferred the deed to the theater from the Rubens family, which built the Rialto in 1926, to the newly formed authority.

Having been involved with the Rialto since the authority's beginning, Carey is well aware that controversies over Rialto funding, such as recent questions raised about the city's $600,000 annual contribution to the theater, are not new.

He also knows the city has been involved with the Rialto from the start.

“The city was the triggering force to create the Rialto,” he said.

Carey did not plan to stay involved with the Rialto and left the city staff for private practice. But the newly formed authority was familiar with Carey and asked him to do legal work, which he did until the end of 2015.

He has good memories from the early years and the people who worked to revive the Rialto.

“They had some real good artisans who came in and did work on the theater. At the time it was fairly run down,” Carey said. “I got to know Dorothy Mavrich very well. She was a good lady.”

[ Mavrich, the woman who led a grassroots effort to save the Rialto from demolition, died Feb. 10. ]

Carey plans to remain a Joliet resident. Retirement plans include travel and spending more time with grandchildren.

As for the Rialto and recent issues surrounding the theater, he said, “I just hope that things settle down for them and that any controversy be eliminated, and that the Rialto foundation receives the kind of community support it needs.”