Carkhuff, Denise A.

Jon Carlson was born in Wakefield, Michigan. He earned an A.B. and J.D. degree at the University of Illinois. He was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1967 and in Missouri in 1990.

He has tried over 200 injury and death cases in State and Federal Courts in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Colorado, and Texas. Mr. Carlson is often referred cases by other attorneys that require trial and has obtained several multi-million dollar awards.

He was President of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association in 1987-1988. He is a member of the Illinois Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the American Association of Justice, the Missouri Trial Lawyers Association, and the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.

His principle office is in Edwardsville, Illinois where he is the senior partner and founder of Carlson & Carlson, P.C. He is also of counsel with the Mullen Law Office in Chicago, Illinois.

He has lectured extensively as well as published such articles as "Products Liability Crisis: Fact or Fantasy?" Litigation, American Bar Association, Vol 4, No. 3, Spring 1978 and "Chapter 7 - Protecting Litigation Rights, Illinois Civil Practice Before Trial, Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, 1978, 1986, 1992, 1997, 1999.

He is included in America's Leading Attorneys as well as the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. He received an AV rating, the highest available rating by Martindale-Hubbell. He is listed in Illinois Super Lawyers 2010.

Mr. Carlson, along with his son, Eric, was lead counsel in the cases of Best v. Taylor Machine Works, Inc., 179 Ill.2d 367, 689 N.E.2d 1057 (Ill. 1997) and Isbell v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 318 Ill.App.3d 1011 (Ill. App. 5th Dist. 2001) which successfully challenged the Illinois Tort Reform Act of 1995. As a result of the work performed in Best, he was recognized as a finalist for Trial Lawyer of the Year in 1998 by the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice. In 1997 one of his clients was awarded the second highest verdict ($5.5 million) at the time for a single plaintiff in St. Clair County, Illinois in the case of Echeverria v. Rogers Cartage.

In 2004, Mr. Carlson was awarded the Leonard M. Ring Lifetime Achievement Award by the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. This annual award is presented to someone who has devoted a substantial part of their life and practice to the ITLA, and had the same standards, work ethic and commitment to ITLA that Leonard Ring had.