I have over 30 years of experience as a trial lawyer, almost all of it spent exclusively handling medical malpractice cases. After getting my law degree from Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, Illinois, in 1988, I moved to Arizona where I worked as a medical malpractice defense lawyer. I stayed there until 1994 when I returned to Chicago and worked briefly for Chicago’s Seyfarth, Shaw doing general commercial litigation work. I quickly discovered that big, commercial case litigation as well as the large law firm life were not for me. 

In 1995, I returned to my trial lawyer roots and joined Cirignani, Heller & Harman where I once again specialize in medical malpractice cases. Both of my law partners have medical backgrounds: Stan is a medical doctor, and Jim was once a respiratory therapist. When I say that I specialize in medical malpractice I mean that it is the only kind of work my firm and I do. We don’t handle auto accidents, slip and falls, product liability, truck accidents, plane and train accident cases—only medical malpractice. Personally, I made the choice to focus my efforts on medical litigation alone because when I was a defense lawyer representing doctors and hospitals I saw first-hand how the experience and expertise of the plaintiff’s lawyer mattered more than anything else to a successful outcome for victims of medical malpractice.

Since returning to medical litigation, I’ve successfully handled a wide variety of medical malpractice cases, including: birth injuries like cerebral palsy, operating room fires, brain injuries, hospital mistakes, medication mistakes, misdiagnoses, stroke injuries, spinal cord injuries, paralysis injuries, anesthesia injuries, and wrongful death.