Attorney Profiles

James L. DeAno attended John Marshall Law School where he served on the Law Review and graduated with high honors in 1981. He worked for the Illinois Supreme Court research department from 1982 until 1984 when he joined the insurance defense firm of O'Reilly & Cunningham which by 1997 evolved into the firm of Norton Mancini Weiler & DeAno.  In June of 2006 he joined with Laura Scarry to create DeAno & Scarry, a law firm which specializes in insurance defense, legal malpractice and municipal defense, primarily in DuPage and Kane Counties and the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois. Mr. DeAno has more than twenty years experience representing defendants in civil litigation in cases before the United States Supreme Court, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the Illinois Supreme and Appellate Courts as well as federal and Illinois trial courts.

His articles have been published in the Illinois Bar Journal and the Journal of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel and in 2005 he was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to the Illinois Civil Jury Instructions Committee. He became a certified arbitrator in 1995 and continues to serve as an arbitrator in DuPage County . He served four terms as General Counsel of the DuPage County Bar Association and was a member of its Judiciary Committee from 1991 to 1994. He currently serves on the Amicus Committee of the Illinois Defense Counsel and is a former faculty member of the Chicago Kent College of Law annual conference on Section 1983 Civil Rights Litigation. He has lectured and instructed attorneys and insurance representatives on topics including trial practice, discovery and damages.

Areas of Practice

• Public Entity and Official Liability
• Police Misconduct
• Legal Malpractice
• Arbitration
• Insurance Defense

Litigation Percentage

• 100% of Practice Devoted to Litigation

Bar Admissions

• Illinois, 1981
• U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois, 1981
• U.S. Court of Appeals 7th Circuit, 1987
• U.S. Supreme Court, 1999

Education

• John Marshall Law School, Chicago, Illinois, 1981
  J.D.
  Honors: With Distinction
  Law Review: John Marshall Law Review, 1978 - 1980
  
  
• Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois, 1978
  B.S.
  Honors: With Honors
  Major: Political Science
  Major: Economics
  
  

Published Works

• Governmental Immunities for Recreational Injuries, 82 Ill.B.J. 28, 28-29, 1994
• The "Class of One" Equal Protection Claim, Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel's IDC Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2000

Representative Cases

• Village of Willowbrook v. Olech, 528 U.S. 562, 120 S.Ct. 1073, 145 L.Ed.2d (U.S. Supreme Court 2000)
• Dunn v. City of Elgin, 347 F.3d 641, C.A.7 (Ill.) (7th Circuit Court of Appeals 2003)

Representative Clients

• Municipal Corporations
• Police Officers
• Public Officials
• Attorneys

Classes/Seminars Taught

• Police Liability Trial Practice, Intergovernmental Risk Management Agency, 2001 - 2004
• Section 1983 Seminar, Chicago Kent College of Law, 2002 - 2003

Professional Associations and Memberships

• Illinois Bar Association, 1981 - Present
  Member
  
  
• DuPage County Bar Association, 1984 - Present
  Member
  
  

Past Employment Positions

• Illinois Supreme Court, Staff Attorney, 1982 - 1984
• Norton Mancini Weller & Deano, Partner, 1984 - 2006

Birth Information

• 1956, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America