Chicago City Hall continued to shell out big money last year to settle lawsuits against the city, primarily related to allegations of police misconduct.
And, according to a Cook County Record analysis of city records, one law firm in particular has consistently financially benefited from those settlements year after year, amassing tens of millions of dollars in attorney fees from lawsuits filed against the city in the past 13 years.
In 2022, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago City Council agreed to pay out more than $110 million in settlements and judgments, according to public information posted by the city’s Department of Law.
That total did not include an additional $6.96 million the city’s Law Department specifically referenced as “legal fees and costs,” meaning additional sums on top of the settlements, earmarked to pay the lawyers who sued the city.
The city’s records don’t include entries for specific legal fees for all settlements and judgments. Typically, plaintiffs’ lawyers claim about one third of legal settlements as attorney’s fees.
However, from city records, it is unclear how much attorneys who sue the city may have earned from those settlements.
The city’s total payments for lawsuit settlements, judgments, fees and costs totaled more than $117.6 million in 2022.
According to a Cook County Record analysis of the historical city data, the 2022 payouts marked the highest total paid by the city to plaintiffs since 2018, when the city paid $141.7 million in settlements and legal fees and costs. It is the fourth highest total paid by the city since 2010, behind the $158.6 million paid in 2013 and $141.2 million in 2012.
It also marked $10 million more than the $107.5 million the city paid for settlements, fees and costs in 2021, according to the city data.
In the past 13 years, the city of Chicago has averaged paying $95.5 million in settlements and related fees.
The law firm of Loevy & Loevy has particularly benefited from the city’s settlements.
The firm is closely aligned with the Chicago-based Exoneration Project, a non-profit organization associated with the University of Chicago School of Law, which has petitioned courts to reopen criminal convictions, even for criminals who have confessed to heinous crimes.
Eight attorneys from the Loevy firm are among 13 total staff members listed on the Exoneration Project’s website. Debra Loevy, a partner at the Loevy firm, serves as the Exoneration Project’s executive director. Loevy attorney Russell Ainsworth is also listed as a founding member of the Exoneration Project.
According to the city data, the Loevy firm has brought at least 111 lawsuits against the city since 2010, primarily in suits alleging police misconduct or Freedom of Information Act violations by the city. And in those 111 cases, the city data specifically logs at least $32.9 million in attorney's fees collected by the Loevy firm from the city.
In 2022, the Loevy firm represented more clients who collectively amassed more than $42 million in settlements from the city. The data posted by the city's Law Department does not reference any specific fees paid by the city to the Loevy firm from those settlements.
Since 2010, other firms earning at least $2 million in fees from the city related to settled lawsuits include:
Myron M. Cherry & Associates, which received $11.8 million in fees from the settlement of a class action lawsuit over red light camera tickets;
Goldstein Borgen Dardarian & Ho, $6.5 million for four cases;
Law Offices of Jeffrey Neslund & Michael D. Robbins, $5.45 million for nine cases;
Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, $4.5 million for seven cases;
The People’s Law Offices, $3.43 million for five cases;
Law Offices of Irene K. Dymkar, $2.94 million for 23 cases;
Smith Johnson & Antholt, $2.86 million for six cases;
Erickson & Oppenheimer, $2.74 million for three cases;
Hamilton Law Office, $2.69 million for 22 cases;
Ed Fox & Associates, $2.69 million for six cases;
O’Malley & Madden, $2.3 million for three cases;
Attorney Susan P. Malone, $2 million for one case; and
Law Office of Jeffrey B. Granich, $2 million for eight cases.
Notable settlements in 2022 included, among others:
- $2.9 million to Anjanette Young, a woman who accused police of wrongly raiding her home in November 2019 and allegedly humiliating her by forcing her to remain naked and handcuffed for the duration of the raid. Young was represented by attorney Keanon Saulter, who narrowly avoided sanctions from a federal judge after the judge said he violated a court order and released video of the raid to CBS2 News;
- $5 million to Alice Martin, mother of Michael Elam Jr., who was killed by police following a chase involving in the car in which Elam was a passenger in February 2019. Martin was represented by attorney Jeffrey S. Neslund, of Chicago. Information about the settlement remains under seal, despite an unopposed motion by the plaintiffs, filed Feb. 20, to allow the settlement to be made public;
- $2 million to Julie Campos, who claimed she was falsely arrested by police as she worked to clean up damage at a Family Dollar Store where she worked amid riots and looting in June 2020, following the death of George Floyd. Campos was represented by attorney Joshua M. Levin and others with the Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU, the firm of Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, and the Law Project of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless;
- $7 million to Patrick Prince, a man who reportedly confessed to shooting and killing Edward Porter in 1991, but was freed from prison in 2017, when the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office dismissed the charges. He claimed his confession was coerced by a Chicago Police detective, who allegedly slapped, kicked and punched him during interrogation. Prince was represented by attorneys Jon Loevy, Steve Edwards Art and David B. Owens, of the firm of Loevy & Loevy, of Chicago;
- $15 million to the family of Guadalupe Francisco-Martinez, a mother of six who died when the vehicle she was in was struck by a Chicago Police squad car that was pursuing Marcel Oliver, a man wanted for multiple crimes in Chicago’s near suburbs;
- $4.25 million to the family of Maurice Granton Jr., who was killed by police. His family asserted he was wrongfully shot in the back while he climbed a fence with police in pursuit. The family is represented by attorneys with the firm of Romanucci & Blandin, of Chicago;
- $6.75 million to Norman McIntosh, who was convicted by a jury of murder in 2001 on the testimony of three eyewitnesses. He maintained his innocence. His conviction was reversed when the witnesses recanted, and a fingerprint analysis linked the murder to a different man. McIntosh was represented by attorney Jennifer Blagg and by the firm of Loevy & Loevy;
- $14.25 million to Daniel Taylor, a man convicted of a double murder to which he confessed in 1992, even though he allegedly was in police custody on an unrelated charge at the time of the killings. He was later cleared by investigations on his behalf, and was released from prison in 2014. Taylor was represented by attorneys with the firm of Loevy & Loevy, and the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center at the Northwestern University School of Law, of Chicago;
- $8 million to Lytiesa and Reginald Little; and
- $14 million to Corey Batchelor and Kevin Bailey, whose convictions for the 1989 murder of Lula Mae Woods were overturned because their confessions were allegedly coerced by Chicago Police detectives. They have been represented by attorneys with the firm of Loevy & Loevy.