Andy Allen is a member of Broadway United Methodist Church and is serving his second term as president of the trustees. He also volunteers at the Greater Chicago Food Depository, and other charitable projects through the church. Andy currently lives in the Bridgeport neighborhood and is also active with social and fund raising events for St. Barbara Grade School, St. Barbara Church, and St. Mary of Perpetual Help Church.
Jim Costello has for the last fifteen years or so, represented one client per year, without fee, in cases which usually involve both medical and legal issues. In the early years, most of these cases involved people who had been denied coverage by their insurance carriers for bone marrow transplants or related issues. This year's case was on behalf of the widow and three young children of a firefighter. The firefighter died of a heart attack about an hour after returning home from fighting a fire. Prior to our firm’s involvement, the Attorney General's Office had denied the claim, arguing that the man's death was unrelated to his work. We then undertook the representation of his family. Our research, both in the medical and in the occupational safety literature, disclosed that firefighters were subject to an enormous amount of physical stress during firefights. It is not unusual for a firefighter to sustain a heartbeat problem which can continue on to cause death for a significant period of time after the firefighter’s work at the scene of a fire was completed. After a preliminary hearing and the scheduling of discovery, the Attorney General’s office agreed to reconsider its initial analysis of the case, taken prior to our involvement in the case. To the credit of that office, rather than engage in a protracted and costly fight in court, they withdrew their recommendation that the claim be denied and agreed to pay the family the benefits due under the Illinois Line of Duty Compensation Act.
Jim Costello has also been involved with St. Sabina’s Law Ministry and has served on the Finance Committee at St. Viator High School.
Since 1979, Jim Costello has written or contributed to many appellate briefs in the Illinois Supreme Court as amicus curiae (“friend of the court”). His most recent effort was filed on behalf of the membership of the Chicago Federal of Labor.
Rich Egan is a frequent volunteer at St. John Berchman’s Parish located in the Logan Square community of Chicago. He is a member of the Young Irish Fellowship Club of Chicago and serves on the Judicial Evaluation Committee for the Chicago Bar Association.
David Gilbreth currently volunteers as an AYSO soccer coach (4 years) where he is proud to say his girls team is the defending region 418 champions.
Paul McMahon is a lifetime member of the Veteran’s of Foreign Wars, a past President of the St. Athanasius Parish Council, and has frequently lectured on the issues of trial skills, particularly in the area of maximizing damages, for the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education. He has also served as a volunteer attorney at the St. Sabina legal ministry on the south side.
Rick Murphy sued a well known Health Insurance Company for wrongfully denying the son of a fireman a desperately needed medical procedure. The case was handled pro bono (for free) by our firm. After a hard fought court battle, the Insurance Company agreed to pay for the medical procedure, decided to changed their medical policy regarding the procedure, and agreed to compensate our client for prolonging his medical procedure.
