O'Donnell, Catherine

Dan O'Day was born in Dubuque, IA in 1955 and moved to Peoria in 1959.  He worked at the A&W Root Beer stand in Peoria for 5 years and in data processing at Caterpillar in Peoria and East Peoria for 6 years before becoming a lawyer in 1981.  Professionally, Mr. O'Day previously practiced at the Chicago law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery and at the Peoria firm of Sutkowski & Washkuhn (now Sutkowski & Rhoads).  He joined our firm (known then as "Cusack & Fleming") in 1990.

Dan O'Day is an honors graduate of Illinois Central College in East Peoria and Bradley University in Peoria.  He attended the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign-Urbana, from which he graduated magna cum laude and in the top 10% of his law school class.  He was selected as a member of the Law Review, received the Rickert Award for Excellence in Legal Writing, and was Order of the Coif.

While in law school, Dan O'Day taught Business Law at the University of Illinois, College of Commerce.  There he was selected by the students as Most Outstanding Instructor.  In subsequent years he taught Business Law at Bradley University.  He has co-authored a three-volume legal treatise as well as articles published in various scholarly journals.

Dan O'Day is a trial lawyer.  He has tried hundreds of cases to verdict and/or judgment in State and Federal Courts.  His jury trials have included civil cases involving personal injuries, negligence, commercial fraud, commercial and real estate contract claims, employment claims, construction claims, specific performance, discrimination claims, replevin, insurance claims, and civil rights.  His jury trials have also included white collar criminal cases, primarily in Federal Courts, in the areas of mail fraud, tax fraud, wire fraud, bankruptcy fraud, bank fraud, insurance fraud, and securities fraud.  His trials before judges sitting without juries have involved numerous areas of law, including injunction cases.

Dan O'Day has also represented individuals and firms at over one hundred trial-like hearings before various administrative tribunals, including the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation, Illinois Department of Human Rights, USDA Packers & Stockyards Administration, Illinois Secretary of State Securities Division, Illinois Industrial Commission, Illinois Pollution Control Board, Illinois Department of Labor, Peoria County Election Commission, California Department of Labor, and various other levels and units of Federal, State, and local government. At well over thirty trial-like hearings in binding arbitration cases, Dan O'Day has represented a variety of parties including labor unions, construction firms, terminated employees, employers charged with unlawful termination, and terminated physicians.

Among his more interesting cases has been the recent representation of thousands of steel workers and retirees in their pursuit of hundreds of millions of dollars in claims in a Federal Bankruptcy Court. He once quickly and favorably settled a case for an Order of nuns operating a famed orphanage in Calcutta when they were sued in State Court in Peoria.  He collaborated in preparing affirmative defenses filed with the United States Senate on President Clinton's behalf, contending that articles of impeachment approved in the House of Representatives were impermissibly multiplicitous and thus unconstitutional.

Dan resides in Peoria and enjoys spending time with his wife, Donna, and daughters, Breanna and Molly.  He also enjoys landscaping, home remodeling, golf, fishing, ball games, surfing the Internet, relaxing in a hot tub, reading fiction and non-fiction, cooking indoors and outdoors, writing provocative letters to the editor, and spending time with his dog.  He has won city, regional, and state awards for his baby back ribs, using celery seed as the "secret sauce ingredient." He is trying to finish writing a musical entitled "Branson MO.U.S.A