Six months after the death of Harold’s Chicken Shack CEO Kristen Pierce-Sherrod, the question remains: Who owns the iconic Chicago restaurant brand?
Pierce-Sherrod’s five adult children claim it’s their birthright, pointing to a mysterious, still-contested “will” that, they say, makes clear their mother’s final wishes.
“This is our brand, our everything — our mom worked for many, many years to make sure that her father’s legacy thrives,” Pierce-Sherrod’s daughter Kasee Gill recently told the Tribune.
Pierce-Sherrod’s widower, Vincent Sherrod, meanwhile, has enlisted former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot as his lawyer to argue that the purported “will” — which wasn’t referenced until two months after Pierce-Sherrod’s death — is fake. In fact, Sherrod believes his wife “actually made an intentional decision to die intestate” — that is, without a last will and testament.
The future of Harold’s Chicken Shack empire may soon be determined by a Will County probate judge. A status hearing is scheduled for later this month.
Pierce-Sherrod and her husband were married more than 14 years before she died Jan. 11, according to court records. Her husband Sherrod was named her “health care agent” four months earlier. Weeks before her death, Sherrod was granted guardianship by a Will County judge.
“As part of the Guardianship Petition, Mr. Sherrod provided the mandatory Report of Physician which attested to Mrs. Sherrod’s disability and the fact that she was ‘TOTALLY incapable of making personal and financial decisions,’” Lightfoot said on Sherrod’s behalf in a recent court filing.
Kasee Gill said Sherrod petitioned for guardianship of their mother without the family’s knowledge.
In a statement to the Tribune, a spokesperson for Sherrod said, “(T)he last thing Mr. Sherrod wants or needs is to be embroiled in litigation and the constant attempts at character assassination just because he loved his wife, is working hard to preserve her vision and legacy and the life they built together,” the statement says. “This fight was brought to him and he will not be bullied or intimidated. He has not and will not dignify the various falsehoods that have been spoken or written about him. He believes the whole truth is and will continue to be revealed through the on-going litigation. Mr. Sherrod is committed to that process and will have no further comment at this time.”
Pierce-Sherrod took over Harold’s Chicken in 2000 from her father, company founder Harold Pierce, and continued to champion the success of the Chicago staple, which became known widely for its crispy wings, fries and iconic “Mild Sauce.”
Records from the Illinois secretary of state’s office show Sherrod and Pierce-Sherrod were the registered agents of just one “Harold’s”-related LLC as of late 2025.
In November, paperwork was filed by Sherrod and Pierce-Sherrod to found a new company: VK Bond Investments LLC, with Pierce-Sherrod named as the agent and Sherrod a manager. Weeks later, records show, Sherrod-Pierce filed paperwork for VK Bond Investments LLC to conduct business under the name Harold’s Chicken 7.
VK Bond Investments is registered to a home in Flossmoor, bought by Pierce-Sherrod in 2006. Cook County land records show the property was hit with a $28,000 lien in December 2025 due to negligent upkeep.
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Records from Will County also indicate that the Pierce-Gill family’s home in Crete entered foreclosure in May. It is not known if Sherrod or any of the Gill children still live at either home.
Just days after Pierce-Sherrod’s burial, in late January, the Gill children met with Sherrod and Lightfoot to discuss the future business operations of Harold’s, but no resolution or agreement was reached.
The following month, records show, Harold’s Chicken 7 was granted a business license to operate in south suburban Markham.
Over the years, several independently owned Harold’s Chicken locations closed down, some due to tax noncompliance, like the Bronzeville location on 47th Street, which the Illinois Department of Revenue shuttered in June 2024. That same year, Original Harold’s Chicken of Nevada LLC, another company managed by Pierce-Sherrod, declared bankruptcy, federal court records show.
Records from the secretary of state’s office indicate the Gill children aren’t linked to any Harold’s locations in Illinois.
The first iteration of Harold’s Chicken Shack opened in 1950 at 47th and Greenwood Avenue. At the time, Pierce and his wife, Hilda, ran a restaurant called H&H, selling chicken feet with dumplings. After adapting the recipe for fried chicken in a test-run, Pierce opened a takeout joint on a whim, with chickens supplied by Gene Rosen, who owned a poultry store down the street. Success followed the lore. By 1975, Pierce had 20 shacks around Chicago, franchised to family or friends.
The out-of-date Harold’s Chicken Shack company website lists 47 official franchise locations nationwide, primarily through brand licensing rather than a traditional, rigid corporate structure. Kasee Gill said many of the locations are still licensed to friends and family, making it an influential tool for Black entrepreneurship in Chicago. Other states with Harold’s Chicken locations include Arizona, California, Georgia, Indiana, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Texas and Missouri.
Over the years, the family struggled to strike down Harold’s Chicken Shack locations that would pop up without an agreement or permission. These locations are not franchises or licensed, and instead opened independently and illegally using the Harold’s Chicken Shack name and likeness. The family first started noticing these restaurants in 2006, the adult Gill children said.
Pierce-Sherrod tried for years to crack down on the owners of these locations. And for a while, it was under control, the adult Gill children said. But it started happening again a few years ago, so Pierce-Sherrod made another attempt in July 2025. This time, she enlisted the help of Lightfoot, believing the former mayor’s ties to aldermen in smaller municipalities would be useful in addressing the unauthorized Harold’s Chicken Shack establishments that had been operating there.
Kasee Gill noted that when the family learned that Lightfoot would be “helping to shut down the illegal locations,” they also learned that Sherrod was the one who brought Lightfoot to Pierce-Sherrod.
Until then, Sherrod was not involved in ownership of Harold’s Chicken Shack or any actions related to licensing agreements, Kasee’s brother, Kyle Gill, claimed. Sherrod’s role instead was limited to consulting with new stores on build-out and construction. Sherrod is also co-founder of the Chicago Children Equestrian Center, a nonprofit organization he began with Pierce-Sherrod in 2021.
Two months after Pierce-Sherrod’s death, her purported will appeared — in a different county.
On March 18, one of Pierce-Sherrod’s daughters filed in Cook County Circuit Court an application to transfer the “will” to Will County, where Pierce-Sherrod lived. Attached to the application was a six-page document, dated Oct. 12, 2025, and stamped “COPY,” that bequeathed the Harold’s Chicken Shack brand to “my beloved children,” Kasee, Kaya, Keele, Kolby and Kyle Gill.
“I have lived through the complexities, heartaches, and legal burdens that come when a family business is not clearly protected from outside interests or secondary marital claims,” Pierce-Sherrod’s purported will reads. “I am establishing these strict provisions today so that you never have to endure the same struggles we did to reclaim what is rightfully yours.”
“You are the keepers of the mild sauce, the guardians of our history, and the future of this brand,” the document continues. “My life’s work has been to clear the thorns from your path so that you may lead with confidence, unity and the knowledge that your mother’s greatest priority was securing your place at the head of this table.”
That same week, Keele and Kyle Gill filed a motion in Will County for “probate of will and for letter of testamentary.”
Court records show Lightfoot filed her first appearance on Sherrod’s behalf in April 2026. Later that month, she filed an objection to the Gills’ petition.
“Mr. Sherrod, as spouse of the Decedent, has serious suspicions regarding the authenticity of the Purported Will the Petitioners are seeking to probate,” Lightfoot wrote in April. “Notably, the Purported Will disinherits Mr. Sherrod, the Decedent’s spouse, of over 20 years, and her primary caretaker through her illness which occasioned her death, as well as the Decedent’s two youngest children, but none of the Gill children. In addition, the Purported Will is deficient and lacking certain details for a will to be admitted to probate. Mr. Sherrod believes that the Decedent actually made an intentional decision to die intestate.”
Soon after their mother’s death, Lightfoot continued, the Gill children “were approaching HCS’s licensees and franchisees, as well as an important vendor, and falsely representing that they, and no one else were in charge of the company, and that these businesses should make immediate cash payments to the Gills’ personal Venmo accounts.”
“These actions created a significant amount of confusion and disruption of the HCS business operations,” Lightfoot wrote. “Mr. Sherrod chose not to report these thefts and misappropriation of corporate funds to law enforcement as he was still grieving the loss of his wife and did not want to escalate issues with the Gill children, despite their conduct.”
An attorney for the Gill children, Candace Hansford, did not respond to requests for comment, but said in a recent court filing, “The Last Will and Testament of the Decedent, which Mr. Sherrod prematurely contests, plainly bequeaths business interests to all of the Decedent’s adult children and serves as the initial basis for Petitioner’s assertion that actions take in contradiction to that purpose pose a risk to the estate.”
Hansford also petitioned to have Lightfoot removed from the case, though the judge denied the motion, records show.
The adult Gill children said while Pierce-Sherrod was in the hospital, they were busy caring for her around the clock as Sherrod “sneakily” took steps to take over the family business.
“We didn’t expect this outcome because our mom was a fighter and a true believer of God. That’s one thing that she put first more than anything,” Kyle Gill said. “We were praying for our mom to get better, and he was praying for our mom not to get better. After she died, there was a time when we just wanted to mourn in peace, but he wanted it to be known to the world that he was going to be taking over Harold’s.”
Kyle Gill said more structural changes followed shortly after his mother’s death and after Sherrod took on an ownership role.
“Letters (from Sherrod) were sent out to franchise operators calling us (my siblings) ‘third party’ and (directing them) not to listen to us,” Kyle Gill said on Wednesday. “We have family members inside of the business and when they received the letter they were like, ‘wait, is he referring to you guys?’”
Most of those store owners didn’t even know Sherrod, Kyle Gill said.
“Vincent (Sherrod) wasn’t on any paperwork ever,” he added. “My mother would never disrespect my grandfather by putting the name of another man onto his company. She had too much respect for her father to do this.”
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