Attorney Susan Schwartz joined Corboy & Demetrio in 1980 following graduation from Loyola University Chicago School of Law and became a partner in 1994. Her practice centers on representing patients and their families in complex medical negligence personal injury and wrongful death actions. Susan's outstanding career as a personal injury lawyer was profiled in a feature article, "Shunning the Limelight, Her PI Career Speaks for Itself," in the Leading Lawyers Network Magazine.
As an experienced and successful medical malpractice lawyer in Chicago, Susan has achieved numerous multimillion dollar verdicts and settlements on behalf of her clients. She and her trial partner, medical malpractice attorney David R. Barry, Jr., secured a record-setting $22 million verdict for the family of a Chicago woman who died during child birth. It is the largest verdict in Illinois for the death of a woman. Her impressive work has also resulted in a $9 million settlement for a 74 year-old nurse’s aide who suffered bilateral below-the-knee amputations as a result of the failure to timely diagnose and treat an acute arterial blockage. When a 13 day-old infant was electrocuted when the EKG leads on an apnea monitor were plugged into a wall outlet by a nurse, Schwartz was successful in securing $4 million for the parents of the infant. Susan obtained a $3.5 million settlement on behalf of the estate of a 64 year-old artist who died as a result of being force fed through a feeding tube that was incorrectly inserted in her lung instead of her stomach. A physician who was disfigured when her employer hospital supplied her with an excessive dose of steroids for an acute asthma attack was awarded $1.5 million in a settlement secured by Susan. In a wrongful death action against a moonlighting emergency department physician, she won an award of $1.7 million for the widow of a 73-year-old man who died of complications from an undiagnosed leaking aneurysm. Susan secured a $3.2 million dollar settlement for the family of a man who died from a heart attack when Chicago Fire Department paramedics could not resuscitate him because the batteries in their defibrillator had not been maintained or replaced every two years in accordance with industry standards.
She is an active member of several bar associations and has lectured locally and nationally at bar seminars and continuing legal education programs on topics ranging from trial practice techniques to alternative methods of dispute resolution. She has spoken about health care issues to doctors, nurses and lawyers at workshops and seminars conducted by their professional organizations. She also has spoken at conferences conducted by the Institute for Health Law at Loyola University Chicago and has served on the faculty for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) for a video series on the cross-examination of experts.
Susan is a contributor to the guidebook, "Medical Malpractice," published by the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education in 2010 and co-authored the chapters on "Duty" and "Proximate Cause." She has also co-authored a chapter in "Operative Obstetrics."
Appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to the Court’s Committee on Character and Fitness, Susan served as a Commissioner from 1999 until 2007. She is a past President of the Board of Governors for Loyola University Chicago, School of Law, on the Board of Directors for the Woman's Bar Foundation and the Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services and a member of the Board of Managers for the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association.
Named one of the top 5% of all Illinois attorneys by the Leading Lawyers Network, Susan was also named one of the top 100 Leading Women Lawyers in Illinois for 2008, 2009 and 2010. Susan was chosen as one of the Top 50 Leading Women Consumer Lawyers in Illinois by the Leading Lawyers Network for 2012. She has been designated an "Illinois Super Lawyer," one of the top 50 women Illinois Super Lawyers in 2011 and has achieved the highest possible rating in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory.
