Thomas Demetrio
About Thomas Demetrio
Thomas A. Demetrio is co-founding partner of Corboy & Demetrio and a nationally renowned trial lawyer. A proud U.S. Veteran, he served in the Army Reserve for six years. Early in his career, he acquired the first 8-figure compensatory verdict in Illinois. He has since obtained well over $2 billion in verdicts and settlements, with all verdicts paid and no lost appeals.
Ranked #1 or #2 lawyer in Illinois by Super Lawyers for 11 or more years, Demetrio received the 2022 Leading Lawyers ranking as #1 Personal Injury Plaintiff's Lawyer and #1 Aviation Accidents Plaintiff's Lawyer. He has appeared in every edition of Best Lawyers in America since 1987. Additional honors include the National Law Journal's Top 50 Litigation Trailblazers (2014), the National Trial Lawyers' 50 Most Influential Trial Lawyers (2019), and Lawdragon Hall of Fame induction (2021).
Major awards include the Leonard M. Ring Lifetime Achievement Award (2016), the Justice John Paul Stevens Award (2016), the Hellenic Bar Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2015), and the Jury Verdict Reporter Lifetime Achievement Award (2023). He is an elected Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, the American College of Trial Lawyers, and the Inner Circle of Advocates.
Demetrio served as President of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the Chicago Bar Association. He founded the Thomas A. Demetrio Award of Excellence recognizing tutoring and mentoring programs. With his inspiration, the Lawyers Lend-A-Hand to Youth program was created in 1995, granting over $1.6 million to mentoring programs for underprivileged Chicago youth.
He served on the Board of Advisors of IIT-Chicago Kent College of Law (1992-2024), including as Chairman. He currently serves on the boards of the Center for Disability & Elder Law and Big Shoulders-Archdiocese of Chicago.
Notable case results
Thomas Demetrio of Corboy & Demetrio represented seven of the people killed and injured when a suspended work platform fell from the John Hancock Center in 2002, part of a $75 million global settlement reached on the eve of trial.
A Cook County jury found Advocate Condell Medical Center responsible for the death of a 47-year-old quadriplegic father who suffered fatal baclofen withdrawal while waiting for a delayed surgery to replace his medication pump, and the verdict was later affirmed on appeal.
A Cook County jury awarded commuter Renea Poppel $29.6 million after a Metra Rock Island train took a 10 mph crossover at 69 mph and derailed, the largest Illinois verdict for one person injured in a mass-transit crash.
Thomas Demetrio negotiated a confidential settlement for Dr. David Dao, the 69-year-old physician dragged off an overbooked United flight at O'Hare in a 2017 video that spread around the world.
Dr. Dao-United Airlines settlement
American Eagle crash (Roselawn)
Global settlement, Hancock scaffolding collapse
Settlements, United Airlines #232 crash
Metra train derailment (including $29.6M jury verdict)
Jury verdict, hospital wrongful death
Car-truck collision (Palos Hills)
USAir #427 plane crash
United Airlines Sioux City crash
Fox River Grove school bus-train crash
Car-truck crash
Birth trauma
Ruptured brain aneurysm
Birth negligence
Brain-damaged pedestrian (limousine)
Negligent intubation
Scrapyard worker death
First 8-figure verdict in Illinois
Bicyclist killed by truck
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
