Brian LaCien
About Brian LaCien
Brian LaCien is a founding partner of Smith LaCien LLP, which he co-founded with Todd A. Smith in March 2020. He began his career as assistant legal counsel to the Illinois House of Representatives, then spent many years at Power Rogers & Smith practicing personal injury law before departing to start Smith LaCien. Brian received his J.D. magna cum laude from DePaul University College of Law, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as a staff writer on the Journal of Art and Entertainment Law. He received his undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of Iowa. Smith LaCien was ranked by Chicago Lawyer magazine as the number-one firm in mass tort/litigation for the period August 2021 through July 2022, based on a $42 million settlement compiled by the Jury Verdict Reporter. Brian chairs the Aviation Section of the American Association for Justice and has been listed on Illinois Super Lawyers since 2011 and Leading Lawyers since 2014.
Notable case results
A Cook County judge approved an $18.5 million settlement for Gabriela Cedillo, a 24-year-old extra who suffered catastrophic brain damage when a snapped tow cable tore through her windshield during filming of Transformers: Dark of the Moon in Hammond, Indiana.
The estate of helicopter pilot Michael Russell recovered $8.15 million, then Illinois's highest reported product-liability settlement involving a helicopter, after a defective tail-rotor drive-shaft bearing caused his Agusta 109C to spin out of control and crash near DuPage Airport. Todd Smith and Brian LaCien, who later founded Smith LaCien LLP, handled the case at their prior firm, Power, Rogers & Smith P.C.
The family of Michelle Swallow, 30, recovered $7.3 million after a bile duct procedure at Presence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet created an unrepaired bowel leak that led to fatal sepsis.
CampGroup LLC paid $4.5 million to settle the wrongful death of a 15-year-old Buffalo Grove boy who drowned during an unsupervised nighttime lake swim at Greenwoods Camp for Boys in Michigan, a result the Jury Verdict Reporter ranked as Illinois's second-highest settlement for the drowning death of a minor.
That ranked Smith LaCien as the number-one mass tort/litigation firm in Chicago Lawyer magazine for 2021-2022
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
