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Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
About Charles A. Porretta
Charles Porretta is a 1991 graduate of John Marshall Law School. For his entire legal career, Mr. Porretta has represented seriously injured victims of negligence and families in wrongful death actions. He has extensive experience in litigating cases in the fields of product liability/asbestos litigation, aviation law, transportation negligence, construction injuries, premises liability, sexual abuse, and medical malpractice. At Cooney & Conway, he primarily concentrates on asbestos litigation.
He has settled many mesothelioma cases in excess of one million dollars. He has been trial counsel in many cases that have resulted in multi-million dollar verdicts, including a $21 million verdict in an airplane crash (reduced to $18.9 million due to a finding of 10% pilot error), a $6.2 million dollar verdict, and a $2.7 million dollar verdict. He has settled numerous cases for well in excess of one million dollars. He has orally argued matters before the Illinois Appellate Court and the Supreme Court of Illinois and has authored many appellate briefs.
He is a frequently invited speaker before local bar associations. Mr. Porretta is in good standing with the Illinois State Bar and the Federal Bar for the Northern District of Illinois. He is also a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Porretta has had a significant impact on over 25 multi-million dollar settlements at trial in the past 2 years.
Proven verdicts and settlements at Cooney & Conway
These results are credited to Cooney & Conway. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.
A Madison County jury awarded James Hutcheson $34.1 million after he developed mesothelioma from asbestos exposure during contract work at Shell Oil's Wood River, Illinois refinery in the 1950s and 1960s.
Chicago agreed to pay $20 million to the families of Fausto Manzera and Andrew Cazares, two men killed in 2009 when off-duty detective Joseph Frugoli struck their disabled vehicle on the Dan Ryan Expressway with a blood-alcohol level more than four times the legal limit, after trial evidence exposed the department's years-long failure to discipline Frugoli for prior suspected drunk driving.
A Delaware jury returned a unanimous $9 million verdict on July 23, 2025, in the first case ever tried over asbestos-contaminated shotgun shells, holding DuPont and Remington's successor liable for the mesothelioma death of Eugene Schoepke, an 84-year-old Illinois farmer and lifelong hunter.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
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Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.