Philip Harnett Corboy Jr | Attorney

Philip Harnett Corboy, Jr. was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1978 and worked in a small white-collar criminal defense firm before joining the criminal division of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office that same year. At the time of his resignation from that public office in 1985, he was a "first-chair" prosecutor--responsible for trying such major felonies as murder, rape, armed robbery and kidnapping--in one of the major courtrooms at the Cook County Criminal Courts Building at 26th and California in Chicago. He joined Corboy & Demetrio as an associate that same year and became a partner in 1991.

His practice centers on representing plaintiffs in aviation and construction litigation, medical and professional negligence, product and premises liability, claims brought under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, and vehicular accident law. He has settled or tried to verdict more than 37 cases in which plaintiffs have recovered $1 million or more. These include a $16.7 million verdict in 1988 with his partner, Thomas Demetrio, on behalf of a brain-damaged pedestrian involved in a collision with an automobile; an $11 million settlement in 1990 on behalf of a Chicago dental student burned in an automobile fire; and a $7.67 million verdict on behalf of an injured construction worker. He has tried cases in a number of states throughout the country and currently serves as lead counsel in litigation on behalf of Cook County, Illinois, against the country's major tobacco companies to recoup public monies paid out for treatment of tobacco-related illnesses. Also, in July, 2001, he represented at trial a limousine driver who lost his leg in an automobile incident at Chicago's O'Hare Airport in which the jury returned a $5.35 million verdict. Most recently he and his partner Robert Bingle litigated to conclusion the case of The Estate of Flores vs. CNA for a lump sum of $18 million. That case involved the wrongful death of a Mexican national who was killed by a piece of falling glass from Chicago's CNA Tower in 1999.

Mr. Corboy is a frequent panelist and lecturer to local, state and national bar associations and is quoted extensively in news stories on matters relating to law and government. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the President's Club of DePaul University and on the Board of Directors of DePaul's College of Law Advisory Council and Capital Development Committee. He serves on the Board of Managers of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and is the Illinois State delegate to the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. He has also served on the Board of Managers of the Chicago Bar Association. Most recently, in October of 2002, he was inducted into the invitation-only American College of Trial Lawyers, the country's pre-eminent organization of trial lawyers that limits its membership to those trial lawyers who are outstanding and considered the best in their state.

He has also been interviewed and quoted in every print and broadcast media outlet in Chicago and the greater Chicagoland area, as well as making appearances and offering commentary on legal issues nationally on the Today Show, The Early Show with Bryant Gumbel, Good Morning America, Court-TV, MSNBC and Fox News' The Edge with Paula Zahn. He has also been quoted on legal topics in Time Magazine, Lawyer's Weekly U.S.A., Of Counsel, Chicago Magazine, Inside Litigation, Crain's Chicago Business, The ABA Journal, and others.

Mr. Corboy has tried 54 criminal and civil trials to verdict.

He devotes much of his time to charitable endeavors, having served on the Board of Illinois Variety Club's International Children's Charity. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago. He is also currently the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Chicago Lighthouse, one of the country's oldest organizations servicing and tending to the needs of people who are blind or visually impaired.