Tomlins, Ronald R

Daniel M. Kotin is a partner and personal injury trial lawyer at the Chicago law firm of Corboy & Demetrio. He is an experienced personal injury, wrongful death and medical malpractice attorney and his practice includes representing individuals in transportation, product liability, and medical negligence cases. As a result of his vast experience, he has attained leadership positions on Steering Committees and has been appointed Lead Counsel on mass tort litigation arising from fires, train derailments, and other disasters.

Throughout his career, Dan has obtained verdicts and settlements totaling more than $190 million on behalf of his clients. Several of his verdicts were record-setting awards for their type of case and amount recovered.

Specifically, with partner, Tom Demetrio, Dan obtained a $29.6 million verdict on behalf of a woman who suffered brain injuries in the derailment of a Metra train. This is the largest verdict in Illinois for an individual injured in a mass transit crash. Before that, Dan obtained a $9.5 million verdict on behalf of the family of former Chicago Blackhawk hockey player and coach Keith Magnuson who was killed in a car crash. This verdict represented the largest personal injury or wrongful death award ever received in the history of St. Louis County, Missouri. Years earlier, he tried a medical negligence case resulting in a $10 million verdict which, at the time, was one of the ten largest medical malpractice verdicts handed down in Cook County.

Dan has also obtained many noteworthy settlements on behalf of clients both before and during trial. He represented 35 passengers injured in a train crash and collected more than $43 million in combined settlements for their injuries. He also recovered $17.5 million in settlements on behalf of the family of a woman who was killed and three others who were injured in a high-rise fire in downtown Chicago.

Other settlements which reflect the wide-variety of Dan’s practice include: $12.25 million in a product liability action against a tire manufacturer for a family who lost their father and grandmother in a vehicle rollover crash after a tire failure; $10.5 million settlement in a medical malpractice case on behalf of a U.S. Postal worker who became paralyzed due to improper medical treatment for injuries he suffered during a fall while working; $8.4 million in a settlement with PACE Bus Company on behalf of a woman who suffered severe brain damage when she was struck by a car after the bus driver required her to disembark in a dangerous location; and $4.5 million in a wrongful death settlement with the CTA on behalf of a family who lost their 10-year-old daughter and sister when she was run-over by a left-turning bus while crossing the street with her mother.

Outside of the courtroom, Dan is involved in multiple legal and civic organizations.  Recently, he was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to serve on the Hearing Board of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission where he helps to decide disciplinary cases against attorneys.

Presently, Dan is the President of The Society of Trial Lawyers, a 78-year-old invitation only organization comprised only of experienced and respected trial lawyers in the Chicago area.

He is on the faculty at Loyola University School of Law where he teaches a course on Civil Procedure and serves as a coach of the School's National Mock Trial Team. He also sits on the Board of Governors for the law school and serves as a Co-Chair of its Circle of Advocates. He is on the faculty at the National Institute for Trial Advocacy where he teaches trial skills to lawyers in an annual program.

He is also very involved with the Chicago Bar Association (CBA), where he has been elected and serves as Treasurer of the Association.  Previously he sat on the Board of Managers and serves on the Association’s Finance Committee. Over the years, he has chaired multiple committees of the CBA and served as the director of its Young Lawyers Section. Dan is also involved in the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, where he is a member of the Board of Managers and was previously the Chairman of the Association's Seminar Planning Committee. In addition, he is also a member of the prestigious Society of Trial Lawyers where he currently serves as vice-president. Dan also serves on boards of various charitable organizations, including Catholic Charities of Chicago and Lawyers Lend-A-Hand to Youth.

Dan has testified at public hearings regarding proposed changes in Supreme Court Rules. He regularly lectures at various bar association and interest group seminars and has published chapters and articles in legal books, periodicals and newspapers. To date, he has presented at more than seventy legal programs and has been published more than twenty times.

In addition to being frequently consulted by the media as a legal expert on contemporary legal issues and cases, Dan is regularly interviewed about the lawsuits he has handled as a personal injury lawyer. He has appeared on numerous television and radio news and talk programs, including, Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS, WGN TV and Radio, and WBBM News Radio 780.

In 2002, Dan was recognized and profiled by Chicago's Law Bulletin Publishing Company as one of "40 Illinois Attorneys Under Forty to Watch". He was honored by Lawdragon as one of "500 New Stars, New World," in 2006. He is a member of The National Trial Lawyers, an organization comprised of the top 100 trial lawyers from each state. He is currently profiled as one of the Top 5% of Civil Trial Lawyers in Illinois by the Leading Lawyers Network, has been designated an "Illinois Super Lawyer" and maintains an AV rating - the highest possible rating for any attorney - from the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory.