Similar personal injury attorneys in Chicago
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
About Debra Thomas
Debra Liss Thomas is Managing Attorney of Romanucci & Blandin. In this role, she collaborates extensively with Managing & Senior Partner Gina A. DeBoni on administration of the firm, while also being responsible for continuing education programs and professional development of the firm's attorneys and staff. Debra has been an attorney for 22 years and has been with Romanucci & Blandin since 2015. She has been a member of R&B legal teams on cases including the historic $27 million settlement for the murder of George Floyd, a $21.3 million verdict at trial for a mother's death in a car accident arising from a wrongful police chase, and a $12.35 million settlement for failure to diagnose a young mother's fatal breast cancer.
In her hybrid management role at the plaintiff's firm, Debra leads the firm's Continuing Legal Education (CLE) activities to ensure professional development of attorneys. She also hires, mentors and leads the firm's Law Clerk program to nurture the next generation of lawyers, while she also fosters the firm's relationships with law schools in Chicago and beyond. Debra has blogged for the firm on leadership and the importance of education and she has established a network of mental health professionals and other subject matter experts who address the entire law firm with valuable perspectives and information, making each attorney and staff member even better so they can then deliver high quality legal service to our clients.
A third-generation attorney, Debra also earned her master's degree in elementary education from DePaul University. Debra serves on the American Association for Justice's Exchange Advisory Committee and is the current Chair of the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) Standing Committee on Member Services, as well as a member of the Standing Committee on Artificial Intelligence, and a member of the ISBA Standing Committee on Women and the Law. She received the Chicago-Kent College of Law Bar & Gavel Society Award in 2002.
Proven verdicts and settlements at Romanucci & Blandin
These results are credited to Romanucci & Blandin. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.
A federal jury awarded $98.65 million to the family and estate of Botham Jean after finding that former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger used excessive force and violated his constitutional rights when she entered his apartment and shot him in 2018.
A class of more than 1.2 million Chicago motorists received a $38.75 million settlement after plaintiffs proved the city collected red light and speed camera fines without giving drivers the second violation notice they were owed under the city's own municipal code.
Romanucci and Blandin recovered $30 million for a family whose infant son suffered permanent brain damage and cerebral palsy after a pediatric surgeon at Rush University Medical Center performed 25 experimental surgeries, severing the child's pulmonary artery during the final operation.
A Cook County jury awarded $28.7 million to the family of Jennifer Arrington-Cutaia, a 44-year-old Franklin Park woman who died after Gottlieb Memorial Hospital discharged her with a severely elevated white blood cell count and other abnormal lab values despite active Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome.
Ben Crump, with co-counsel Antonio Romanucci and L. Chris Stewart, negotiated a $27 million settlement between the family of George Floyd and the City of Minneapolis, announced by the family's lawyers as the largest pretrial settlement of a civil rights wrongful-death claim in American history. The city council approved the payment unanimously in March 2021, while jury selection in Derek Chauvin's murder trial was underway blocks away.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
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Proven verdicts and settlements from other Chicago firms
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.