People

The law firm of Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen announces that five attorneys have become partners with the firm: Renee Monfort, Jana Brady, Michael Denning, Heidi Ruckman, and Patrick Cloud.

Renee Monfort began practicing law in 1990. She joined Heyl Royster’s Urbana office in 2009. Her practice focuses on the defense of healthcare providers and other professionals in professional liability litigation. She provides general counsel to individual health care professionals, multi-specialty clinics and hospitals on administrative, policy and risk management matters. Her practice also includes representation of clients in administrative proceedings before the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and the Illinois Human Rights Commission.

Jana Brady joined the firm’s Rockford office following graduation from law school in 2003. She focuses her practice on the defense of civil litigation and federal practice, particularly in the context of employment law, civil rights, medical malpractice, correctional medicine, insurance coverage, school law, and nursing home cases, and further practices in the areas of health care law and creditors' rights in the context of lien adjudication.

Michael Denning was a summer associate for the firm’s Peoria office and served as Senior Law Clerk to Justice Tom Lytton of the Illinois Appellate Court, Third District prior to joining Heyl Royster’s Rockford office in 2004. He concentrates his practice in civil litigation, including defense medical malpractice and nursing home litigation; auto, premises and trucking litigation; and the defense of toxic tort and asbestos claims.

J. Gordon Henry, age 95, passed away in Naples, Fla. on Dec. 6, 2011.

Before moving to Marco Island in 1981, Gordon worked as Senior Vice President and Trust Counsel at the Northern Trust Company in Chicago.

His principal avocation was teaching and he devoted significant time organizing and teaching courses in estate planning and business law in numerous states throughout the country. His most important legal advocacy was as a member of a five-member Federal Taxation Section Committee which succeeded in causing Congress to repeal a complex law that would have had a devastating effect on the administration of decedents' estates.

Gordon assumed multiple leadership positions throughout his lifetime in community, church, athletic, and school-based committees and Boards in Illinois and Florida. He served as Commander of the Marco Island Power Squadron, Commodore of both the Marco Cruise Club and the Marco Bay Yacht and Sailing Club, and Director of the Marco Island Yacht Club and YMCA. With his wife Coke Henry, he became cruise planner extraordinaire and a backwater specialist navigating through dense mangrove islands in the Everglades.

His family thanks all of Gordon's friends and acquaintances on Marco Island who helped provide him with a deeply satisfying and happy retirement. Gordon was predeceased by his first wife of 41 years, Aileen Wilson; and his second wife of 24 years, Carol Seaman Sudler.

Gordon is survived by a daughter Laura Henry of Zion, IL; and two stepchildren Carroll and Elizabeth Sudler of Los Angeles, CA and Sag Harbor, NY.

Joseph R. Marconi

The Committee is comprised of circuit court judges from around the state and is chaired by Justice Maureen E. Connors of the First District Appellate Court. As directed by the Supreme Court, the Committee “shall investigate and make recommendations on innovative means of expediting pretrial discovery and ending any abuses of the discovery process so as to promote early settlement discussions and encourage civility among attorneys.” The Committee reappointed Advisors Eugene Pavalon of Pavalon & Gifford (Chicago), Paul E. Root (Chicago), and David Mueller of Cassiday & Mueller (Peoria). Professor Marc D. Ginsberg of The John Marshall Law School was also reappointed as “Professor-Reporter” to the Committee.

Donohue Brown Mathewson & Smyth LLC is pleased to announce that Michael Borree and Timothy Hogan have been elected to the partnership.

Michael Borree's practice is focused on professional malpractice defense, products liability defense, and commercial litigation. Mr.
Borree joined the firm after practicing at a Chicago litigation firm. He graduated from DePaul University College of Law, cum laude, in 2003. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999.

Timothy L. Hogan's practice is concentrated on professional liability, products liability and commercial matters. Mr. Hogan joined the firm following a clerkship with Judge Lynn M. Egan in the Law Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County. He is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago School of Law (2002), where he was on the Dean's List, staff editor of the Loyola University Consumer
Law Journal, and a member of the London Advocacy Program. He received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University.

About DBMS

Donohue Brown Mathewson & Smyth LLC is one of Chicago's pre-eminent trial practice boutiques. Founded in 1995, the firm successfully tries difficult, high exposure cases in the country's most challenging jurisdictions. The firm is known as one of the "go to" firms in Chicago for particularly difficult or high stakes cases and, since its founding, no firm in Chicago has tried as many complex cases as successfully as DBMS.