Joseph A. Power, Jr.

Joseph A. Power, Jr. was born on October 15, 1952. He is a founding partner in the law firm of Power, Rogers & Smith, P.C. He is past president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and Public Justice. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. He is a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, an organization of the top 100 plaintiff’s personal injury lawyers in the United States. Mr. Power has been listed in the Harvard Law Graduates Naifeh and Smith book, The Best Lawyers in America, every year since 1987. The National Law Journal recognized him as one of the top ten litigators in the United States. He was recently selected as one of the top trial lawyers by LawDragon, a group which selects the top 500 trial lawyers in the country. In 2013, he was named in a poll of his peers by the Leading Lawyers Network as the top plaintiff personal injury lawyer and the top consumer attorney in Illinois. In 2012, he was presented with the “Champion of Justice” award by Public Justice, a national public interest law firm who, with dedicated plaintiffs’ attorneys, fight injustice and holds corporate and government wrongdoers accountable for their misconduct.

Mr. Power has been awarded the “Distinguished Award for Excellence” from the Illinois Bar Foundation, the “Medal of Merit” from the Illinois State Bar Association, the “Medal of Excellence” by the Loyola University of Chicago School of Law, the “Citizen of the Year” by the City Club of Chicago and the Civil Justice Foundation’s “Special Commendation Award” for uncovering and disclosing the trucking license for bribe scandal in the Office of Secretary of State which resulted in 76 criminal convictions including the former Governor. His clients in this case recovered a record $100,000,000.00 in a trucking case resulting in the death of six children of a minister and his wife. This case also triggered the retesting of over 2000 truck drivers.

At age 28, he became the youngest lawyer in the country to obtain a jury verdict in excess of a million dollars for his client. He later tried a case for a brain damaged 59 year old as a result of medical malpractice which led to the  highest medical malpractice award in Illinois history of $55.4 million dollars. In another noteworthy case, a local hospital allowed a teenage gunshot victim to bleed until he was near death in an alley outside its doors, until the police came to his rescue and carried him into the hospital. He later died. This case resulted in a federal investigation, review and clarification of the federal law concerning hospital emergency room duties. The family of the deceased teenager ultimately recovered $12.5 million. He has tried and recovered numerous medical malpractice cases including $43,000.000.00, $35,000,000.00, $30,000,000, $25,000,000.00, $21,700,000.00, $18,750,000.00, $18,000,000.00, $15,700,000.00, $13,000,000.00, $12,800,000.00, $12,500,000.00, $12,250,000.00, and $12,000,000.00. Mr. Power has never lost a medical malpractice case at trial. Each one of his jury verdicts have resulted in the payment of between $43 and $2 million dollars depending upon the amount of the defendant’s insurance policy.

In another trucking case, an Illinois family recovered almost $40 million, which was all the insurance coverage available, when a husband and father of two was killed and his teenage daughter suffered serious injuries as a result of a negligent truck driver in Indiana. Mr. Power also obtained a $23 million dollar verdict for a 50 year old man seriously injured in a trucking collision in Illinois.

In late 2012, Mr. Power obtained a jury verdict of $3.1 Million Dollars for a 45 year-old Hispanic woman who was killed by a motor vehicle in an unwitnessed hit and run on Chicago’s south side. Complicated forensic evidence developed by Mr. Power tied a school bus to the collision after the police department failed to charge anyone. The defendant’s insurance company offered only $500,000 to settle.

In February 2013, prior to jury selection, he settled a medical malpractice case for a brain damaged child for $35,000,000. In March 2013, Mr. Power obtained a $23,000,000 award for a young man who lost his legs in a bailor. In May 2013, he obtained a record verdict following a two week trial for his client in Ogle County of $5,000,000 in a motorcycle collision. He returned to Cook County and in July 2013 obtained a $7,250,000 trial verdict for a school teacher who was killed as a result of medical malpractice. In January 2015 he was involved in the recovery of $30,000,000 for a man who lost the use of both kidneys due to medical malpractice. The case was scheduled for trial in February, 2015.

Based upon a recent 2013 statewide survey of attorneys, The Leading Lawyers Magazine again named Joe Power as the leading consumer and personal injury attorney in Illinois. The publication Best Lawyers in America also named Mr. Power the top personal injury lawyer in Illinois for 2014.

Power Rogers & Smith has recovered over $3 billion dollars in verdicts and settlements. Power Rogers & Smith has achieved the #1 spot in the Chicago Lawyer Annual Settlement Survey again in 2014, meaning the firm obtained more dollars in recoveries than any other Chicago personal injury law firm in Illinois. In fact, Power Rogers & Smith has finished first in the settlement survey in nine of the last fifteen years and has held the first place spot for the past five consecutive years, surpassing its next closest competitor by more than $530 Million in total recoveries since 2000.

He is the immediate past President of ABOTA (Illinois Chapter) and the current President of the Celtic Legal Society.

• Admitted to Illinois Bar, 1977
• Admitted to Northern District of Illinois, 1977
• Admitted to Northern District of Illinois, Federal Trial Bar, 1982
• Admitted to U.S. Supreme Court, 1992
• Admitted to U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, 1994
• Admitted to U.S. District Court Central District of Illinois, 1994

• J.D., Loyola University, 1977

• B.A., University of Notre Dame, 1974
  • With high honors in government and international relations

• 2015 Leading Lawyers Magazine, Top Personal Injury and Consumer Lawyer based upon polling of fellow lawyers
• 2014 Leading Lawyers Magazine, Top Personal Injury and Consumer Lawyer based upon polling of fellow lawyers
• 2013 Best Lawyers in America Selected as Top Personal Injury Lawyer in Chicago
• 2013 Top vote getter as Leading Personal Injury Leading Lawyers Network
• 2013 Leading Lawyers Magazine, Top Personal Injury and Consumer Lawyer based upon polling of fellow lawyers
• 2012 Top vote getter as Leading Personal Injury Leading Lawyers Network
• 2012 Public Justice, Champion of Justice Award
• 2011 Leading Lawyers Network, Top Ten Personal Injury and Consumer Attorney in Illinois
• 2011 LawDragon, selected as One of the Best Lawyers in the country
• 2010  Jury Verdict Reporter, Award for Record Medical Malpractice Verdict and for having Over Five Jury Verdicts of Eight Figures or More
• 2010 Best Lawyers in America, selected as Top Personal Injury Lawyer in Chicago
• 2010 Leading Lawyers Network, Top Personal Injury and Consumer Lawyer in Illinois
• 2009 Chicago Lawyer Magazine, named in Chicago Lawyer Settlement Survey as one of the top 4 Plaintiff’s law firms in Chicago
• 2009 Leading Lawyer Network, Top Votegetter as Leading Consumer and Personal Lawyer
• 2009 Super Lawyer Magazine, One of Top Ten Lawyers in Illinois
• 2008 Chicago Lawyer Magazine, named in Chicago Lawyer Settlement Survey as one of the top 4 Plaintiff’s law firms in Chicago
• 2007 Chicago Lawyer Magazine, named in Chicago Lawyer Settlement Survey as Number 1 Plaintiff’s law firms in Chicago
• 2006 Chicago Lawyer Magazine, named in Chicago Lawyer Settlement Survey as one of the top 4 Plaintiff’s law firms in Chicago
• 2005 Chicago Lawyer Magazine, named in Chicago Lawyer Settlement Survey as one of the top 4 Plaintiff’s law firms in Chicago
• 2004 The Top Votegetter in a Poll of Illinois Lawyers of the Top Attorneys in Illinois. Published in Chicago Magazine.
• 2004 Chicago Lawyer Magazine, named in the Settlement Survey as the No.1 Plaintiff’s Law Firm in Chicago
• 2004 Awarded Illinois Bar Foundation’s Distinguished Award for Excellence
• 2003 Awarded Illinois State Bar Association, Medal of Merit
• 2003 Awarded Tribute for Leadership on behalf of social justice and progressive change by US Action and US Action Education Fund
• 2003 Awarded Medal of Excellence by Loyola University School of Law
• 2003 Chicago Magazine, October 2003, named in Chicago Lawyer Settlement Survey as No. 1 Law Firm in Chicago
• 2003 Awarded Citizen of the Year, June 2003, by the City Club of Chicago
• 2002 Chicago Magazine, “30 Tough Lawyers,” named one of the 30 toughest lawyers in all fields in Chicago. Those listed are, according to the magazine, attorneys you want “for you, not against you.”
• 2001 Awarded “Protector of the Working Man” by the Illinois State Crime Commission
• 2000 Awarded the Civil Justice Foundation’s Special Commendation Award for his thoroughness, tenacity, and courage in uncovering and disclosing the “License for Sale” scandal in the State of Illinois secretary of state’s office as part of the Willis case.
• 1999 National Law Journal named as one of the top trial lawyers in the United States and one of the top four plaintiff’s personal injury trial lawyers in Illinois.

• Illinois Trial Lawyers Association 
  • President, 1992-1993
  • President Elect, 1991-1992
  • Second Vice President, 1990-1991
  • Third Vice President, 1989-1990
  • Board of Managers, 1984-1989
  • Chairman, Legislative Committee, 1987-1989
  • Chairman, Membership Committee, 1985-1987
  • Member, Executive Committee, 1986-1987 and 1989-1994
• The Association of Trial Lawyers of America 
  • Chairman, Insurance Practices Committee, 1986-1987
  • Sustaining Member
• Trial Lawyers for Public Justice 
  • President, 1998-1999
  • President Elect, 1997-1998
  • Vice President, 1996-1997
  • Lifetime Member
  • Board of Directors, 1992-1997
  • Benefactor
  • State Captain, 1988-1994
• American College of Trial Lawyers 
  • Fellow, 1995
• International Academy of Trial Lawyers 
  • Fellow, 1996
• Inner Circle of Advocates 
  • Member
• Chicago Bar Association 
  • Member
• Illinois State Bar Association 
  • Member
• American Bar Association 
  • Member

APPOINTMENTS

• U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Chairman’s Advisory Council, 1994
• Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee 1995-2003, Chairperson, 1996-2000