Five Partners Named Leading Lawyers in the State of Illinois; Two Partners and Two Associates Named Emerging Lawyers

All five of the firm’s name partners have been selected by their peers to be listed by the Leading Lawyers Network as being among the top lawyers in the State of Illinois. These partners have been named as leading lawyers in several specialty areas including commercial litigation, insurance coverage and reinsurance, personal injury defense, products liability and transportation defense.  Nominations for this honor were obtained by surveying all Illinois lawyers and asking the question: "If a family member or friend needs legal help and you cannot take the case, which lawyers would you recommend within your area of law or geographic area?" Lawyers could not nominate themselves or anyone at their firm. All nominations were subjected to three additional phases of review before the final selection for the listings were made. The total number of members in the Leading Lawyers network will never exceed five percent of the total number of lawyers in the state.

The following partners were recommended by their peers to be among the top lawyers in the State of Illinois:

          Jeffrey H. Lipe (commercial litigation; product liability defense; general
          personal injury defense)
          Raymond Lyons, Jr. (general personal injury defense; product liability
          defense; transportation defense)
          Edward J. Murphy (product liability defense)
          Bradley C. Nahrstadt (product liability defense; medical
          malpractice defense)
          Thomas J. Pontikis (commercial litigation, insurance/insurance
          coverage/reinsurance law; general personal injury defense; product
          liability defense)
 

In addition, James Whalen, Ryan Kelly, Jordan Tank and Starr Rayford have been recognized as Emerging Lawyers.  Emerging Lawyers identifies the top 2% of the lawyers in Illinois who are under 40 years old or have been practicing for 10 years or less.  These attorneys were recognized as Emerging Lawyers in the following fields:
 

          James H. Whalen (general personal injury defense; product liability
          defense; employment law: management)
          Jordan M. Tank (general personal injury defense; civil and appellate law;
          commercial litigation)
          Starr M. Rayford (general personal injury defense; product liability defense;
          professional malpractice defense)