Brion Doherty
Motherway Napleton
Plaintiffs’ personal injury

Brion Doherty has won millions of dollars in verdicts for his clients. And he’s earned these big results during what has been a relatively short legal career.

There is the case in which Doherty represented the estate of a 50-year-old man who was killed, leaving behind two adult children. Doherty tried the case in a way that acknowledged the dignity of the relationship between the decedent and his children.

During the case, Doherty turned down several significant offers to settle. This paid off, as the jury awarded Doherty’s client $4.78 million, nearly ten times more than what the defendants were willing to offer.

This is just one example of Doherty’s legal talent. And it’s far from a rare case, according to the fellow attorneys who have watched this plaintiffs’ personal injury specialist at work.

“It was clear to me from our first experience working a trial together that Brion was special,” said Shawn Kasserman with Chicago’s TKK. “His unyielding commitment to our client was beyond normal. Brion’s writing, reasoning, passion and forward-thinking was outstanding since the very first case we worked on together.”

Doherty’s $4.78 million verdict isn’t his only big success. He also obtained a verdict of $1.3 million for a client who suffered a back injury after falling at a gas station. Doherty’s fellow attorneys say it took “guts and insight” to realize that this was a case worth taking to a jury.

Daniel Fritz, with Chicago’s Taylor Miller, has worked opposite Doherty, most recently on a case in which the defendant had a modest insurance policy limit of $50,000. Fritz, though, said that Doherty quickly realized that the case was worth more than that amount. The insurance carrier eventually offered Doherty’s client that $50,000 limit. But Doherty refused and argued the insurance company had missed a key deadline, exposing it to further liability.

Again, Doherty’s intuition paid off. The matter was eventually resolved through arbitration, the net result being that Doherty’s client recovered nearly six times the policy limit.

“Brion has always displayed a level of professionalism and cool-headedness that belie his age,” Fritz said. “He has handled some larger cases with exceptional results.”

Dan Kotin, with the Chicago law firm of TKK, has also worked with Doherty. The young attorney served as Kotin’s law clerk. Kotin calls Doherty one of the best clerk with which he has ever worked.

He points to work Doherty turned in on a complex wrongful-death case. Doherty’s work helped the firm earn a multi-million-dollar result.

Another example of Doherty’s abilities, recently, he secured a verdict for an award of $467,472.22 after contributory plaintiff’s negligence. Where the plaintiff exited a taxicab and she shut the right rear door on her mid-length coat. Within a second or two, the taxicab proceeded to merge into traffic and dragged plaintiff 90 feet on her left side. When the cab stopped, she fell to the ground. Plaintiff contended the taxicab driver should have waited until the plaintiff cleared the vehicle before taking off, (i.e. checked his sideview mirror) and should have been paying more attention to the plaintiff during the exiting process.

Outside the courtroom, Doherty is extremely dedicated to his profession. He is the former chairman of the Chicago Bar Foundation Young Professionals Board, former chairman of the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Junior Board and is currently on the CVLS Board of Directors.