Kringel, Jerome H.

Professional Background & Experience
Before entering private practice, Mr. Touhy was an assistant attorney general for the Illinois Attorney General's Office, specializing in federal trial practice. After six years at the attorney general's office, he became trial counsel for the firm Roderick J. Bergin and Associates, defending complex litigation cases involving catastrophic injuries sustained by plaintiffs, mostly in construction and product liability settings. In 1991, he formed Touhy & Touhy Ltd. with his brother, Timothy J. Touhy, and since then has focused his practice on plaintiff's catastrophic personal injury litigation, medical malpractice, products liability, civil rights and most recently, class action litigation in the trial and appellate courts. Mr. Touhy has obtained record-setting jury verdicts in both state and federal trial courts on behalf of plaintiffs in these kinds of cases. In 2007, he and his brother joined Terrence Buehler to form Touhy, Touhy, Buehler & Williams, LLP.

Mr. Touhy was lead counsel for the class of Illinois citizens that brought suit against NICOR in 2002 for mercury contamination of homes in northern Illinois, and also served as lead counsel in Perez v. RadioShack, a collective action brought against RadioShack for FLSA violations in failing to pay overtime to its managers. The RadioShack case generated a federal district court ruling creating the "80-80" rule, a guideline widely followed by district courts across the country protecting the rights of managers to overtime compensation.

Since then, Mr. Touhy has served as lead counsel in a series of class and collective claims seeking overtime compensation from employers on behalf of employees, including Champion Mortgage, Wilmington Finance, U.S Bank, the Lake County Sheriff's Department, Ameristar Casinos, and others.