I have practiced law in Illinois since 1985. I learned how at the Loyola University of Chicago School of Law. Before that, in 1982, I graduated from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia with a bachelor's degree in History & Economics. My first lawyer job was to defend insurance companies and their customers against injury claims. The firm I worked for represented most all of the major insurance companies at one time or another. I went to court nearly every day for six years and learned the trial skills I still rely on to this day. I never really liked working for insurance companies, so I left in 1990 to open my own office. Now I represent 'real people.' I like it.