Attorneys

Susan Gunty

James P. McCarthy
Paul Van Lysebettens
Stephen K. Milott
Robert G. Freyder
Jean M. French
Mary Ann O'Reilly
Catherine L. Carlson
Mara E. Cohen
Jeremy B. Harris
Jennifer B. Groszek
Sheryl E. Healy
Patricia M. Kelly
Scott D. Pfeiffer
James P.. Kasper
Tamika D. Marshall
Richard L. McLennan

Susan Gunty

Susan Gunty graduated from Loyola University School of Law, where she received the Loyola Law School Service and Leadership Award. She also received her Bachelors degree and a Masters degree in Philosophy from Loyola University.

While in law school, Ms. Gunty was an editor and contributing writer for the Women's Law Reporter. She authored additional articles which have appeared in the journal of the American Bar Association Tort and Practice Section and the Illinois State Bar Association Journal.

In 1980, Ms. Gunty became associated with the Law Office of John B. Grogan. Ltd., defending serious personal injury cases assigned by Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago as well as by numerous insurance companies. She has extensive experience in all phases of litigation and has specialized in cases involving toxic tort, as well as strict product liability, general negligence, and construction defects (especially asbestos and other chemical exposure cases). After Mr. Grogan became an Illinois judge in 1989, Ms. Gunty became associated with another mid-size Chicago defense firm, where she was named partner within six months. In 1991, she left to form Gunty & McCarthy. Ms. Gunty has been heavily involved in the defense of asbestos litigation for over twenty-five years and was an original member of the "Chicago Asbestos Defense Group" which was used as a prototype for concerted defense efforts in other jurisdictions. The defense group was involved in both personal injury and property damage lawsuits, many of which resulted in precedential rulings by the Illinois Appellate and Supreme Courts. She has developed a detailed knowledge of the various asbestos-related diseases and their defenses based on medical and scientific literature. Ms. Gunty is experienced both as a trial and appellate attorney. In 1994, Ms. Gunty obtained a defense verdict following a two-month trial of a mesothelioma death case. The jury awarded the plaintiff $3.5 million from the remaining defendant. Ms. Gunty obtained another defense verdict in a case several years later where the jury awarded $13.5 million from a second co-defendant to a worker diagnosed with mesothelioma in Madison County, Illinois. Most recently she has tried cases in Indiana and in St. Clair County, Illinois obtaining additional defense verdicts. She has been involved in the development and drafting of Standing Case Management Orders as well as amendments thereto. She is currently representing more than 75 defendants in pending or recently pending Madison County and Cook County asbestos litigation. She represents defendants in construction defect cases, lead exposure cases, and other product liability lawsuits.

Ms. Gunty has twice been appointed as National Coordinating Counsel for asbestos defendants involved in nationwide asbestos litigation. She is a member of the bar for the States of Illinois, Indiana and Missouri as well as numerous federal courts in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. She is a member of the Federal Trial Bar and is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. She belongs to the Illinois State Bar Association, the Defense Research Institute, the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel and the Chicago Bar Association. Ms. Gunty has presented defense seminars for such associations as Mealey's and others on toxic tort cases involving AIDS tainted blood, asbestos lawsuits and defenses, expert witnesses under Daubert, trial litigation strategy and emerging toxic torts. She currently supervises all toxic tort litigation, lead exposure cases, and construction lawsuits being defended by Gunty & McCarthy. She oversees hundreds of cases, most of which are facing trial dates and is instrumental in resolving those cases, in most instances, short of trial.