The costly proof is just one of the nuggets ABC7 found in the mayor's latest financial records filed with the state.
The court challenge that Emanuel had to overcome was proving that he was indeed a Chicago resident and had been for at least a year as required by law.
Emanuel had held onto his home here in Ravenswood, even though he and his family had moved to Washington where he was President Obama's fiery chief of staff, and the house was leased out.
But Emanuel and his legal team won the case, and Emanuel won the election.
According to expenditure records on file with the state, he paid about $800,000 in legal bills.
The Mayer Brown Law Firm was paid $10,000 in January, $215,000 in March and $200,000 in June and September each time.
Emanuel paid experts from another firm about $100,000.
There are still outstanding legal bills of $74,000.
The law firm expenses are just a fraction of what Emanuel spent overall to get elected. He spent about $13 million, much of it on television ads.
Even though he didn't bring in any new campaign funds the past few months, the mayor's account still showed more than $1.3 million in the latest state records.
Emanuel recouped some of the legal fees, though in donations, from Mayer Brown attorneys.
Since September 2010, firm employees donated a total of almost $70,000 to the Emanuel campaign.
