Susan J. Schwartz

Susan J. Schwartz, a partner at Corboy & Demetrio for 25 years, is a highly accomplished trial attorney practicing in the area of medical malpractice law. Susan’s remarkable career at the firm spans 40 years, following her graduation from Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 1980. Susan’s practice centers on representing patients and their families in complex medical negligence personal injury and wrongful death actions. Among her many successes, Susan triumphed in a 17-year legal odyssey with two Illinois Supreme Court opinions resulting in a settlement she and Thomas Demetrio obtained against the Chicago Board of Education and the Chicago Youth Centers on behalf of a 13-year-old CPS student who broke his neck on a mini-trampoline.

Susan has achieved numerous multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements on behalf of her clients. She and her trial partner, medical malpractice attorney David R. Barry, Jr., secured a record-setting $22 million verdict for the family of a Chicago woman who died during child birth. It is the largest verdict in Illinois for the death of a woman.

In 2015, Susan’s impressive work resulted in a $14 million settlement on behalf of an 8-year-old girl, who when seven weeks old, was admitted to an Illinois hospital for bronchitis and was intubated improperly.

And in 2016, Susan and David R. Barry, Jr. obtained a jury verdict of $10 million for a Chicago physician, who sustained an unrecognized 4th degree tear from her vagina to her rectum during forceps delivery of her baby.

Appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to the Court’s Committee on Character and Fitness, Susan served as a Commissioner from 1999 until 2007. She is a Past President of the Board of Governors for Loyola University Chicago, School of Law, as well as a former officer and member. Susan served on the Board of Directors of the Woman’s Bar Foundation from 2010-2015. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services (CARPLS) after previously serving on its Board of Directors from 2010-2019, including serving as the board’s secretary from 2016-2018. Susan also serves on the President’s Council of Almost Home Kids.

Susan was selected to The Best Lawyers in America in 2021, an honor given to only five percent of attorneys nationwide. Named one of the top five percent of all Illinois attorneys by the Leading Lawyers Network, Susan was also named one of the top 100 Leading Women Lawyers in Illinois for 2008, 2009 and 2010. Susan was chosen as one of the Top 50 Leading Women Consumer Lawyers in Illinois by the Leading Lawyers Network for 2012. Since 2005, she has been selected to “Illinois Super Lawyers,” and was named one of the top 50 women Illinois Super Lawyers in 2011. She has achieved the highest possible rating in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory.

In 2019 and 2020, Susan was selected to the national Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers.