Thomas Demetrio

Thomas A. Demetrio is a co-founding partner of Corboy & Demetrio in Chicago, Illinois, where he represents people hurt or killed in aviation disasters, medical negligence, vehicle and trucking crashes, product failures and other catastrophic events. Over his career he has recovered more than $2 billion in verdicts and settlements for clients, and the firm reports that he has never lost an appeal.

Demetrio earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Notre Dame and his law degree at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, and he spent six years in the U.S. Army Reserve. Early in his practice he won a $12 million jury verdict, the first eight-figure compensatory verdict in Illinois. His later results include a $110 million settlement after the American Eagle crash in Roselawn, a $75 million global settlement for victims of the Hancock scaffolding collapse and a $42.4 million jury verdict against a hospital in a patient’s death.

He has led both the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, as president in 1988, and the Chicago Bar Association, as president in 1992. He is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the Inner Circle of Advocates. During his CBA presidency he helped launch the Lawyers Lend-A-Hand to Youth mentoring program, and the CBA’s Thomas A. Demetrio Award of Excellence recognizes Chicago tutoring and mentoring programs. His honors include the ITLA Leonard M. Ring Lifetime Achievement Award and the CBA’s Justice John Paul Stevens Award, both in 2016.