Rick grew up on the Southwest side of Chicago and is proud of his blue-collar roots. Rick’s father is a Local 134 Electrician. Throughout life Rick has always had some sort of job, whether it was delivering newspapers on his bicycle in grammar school or working construction as a way to put himself through college and law school. Rick is a former member of Local 134 Electrician’s Union as well as Laborers’ Local 4.
Rick is a graduate of Brother Rice High School. After finishing High School Rick attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he received a B.A. in English and Political Science. Rick received his law degree from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law.
After graduating from law school, he joined the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office where he served in the Felony Trial Division prosecuting violent felonies. Rick was promoted to the Felony Trial Division only after 2 ½ years with the State’s Attorney’s Office, a feat that usually takes 6 to 7 years to achieve. As a Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Rick tried 27 juries and hundreds of bench trials, including cases involving murder, rape, armed robberies and home invasions. In total, Rick has tried 31 juries to verdict.
Since joining the firm in 2005, Rick primarily handles cases involving catastrophic injuries or wrongful deaths. In January of 2008 Rick tried an automobile accident case where our client required two back surgeries, resulting in an award of $1.8 million dollars. In May of 2008 Rick tried a case against a company that failed to properly mark high voltage lines in our client’s backyard. Our client rented a gas powered auger to dig holes for a fence he was putting in his backyard. When the client dug down with a gas powered auger he hit a high voltage line causing him to be thrown and knocked unconscious. Our client suffered from an electrical shock injury causing him to have constant shaking in his legs resulting in pain and sleepless nights. The jury returned a verdict for $4.75 million dollars.
Despite his involvement in cases which resulted in the recovery of large amounts of money for our clients and their families, Rick’s favorite case was against a well known health insurance company. The case was handled pro bono (for free) by our firm. Rick sued a well known Health Insurance Company for wrongfully denying the son of a fireman a desperately needed medical procedure. 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. (We agreed to a confidentiality order in order to obtain compensation for the client.)
In June of 2008 Rick became a name partner with the firm.
