Illinois Governmental Tort and Section 1983 Civil Rights Liability

Steven M. Puiszis is a partner in the Chicago office of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP and is a resident of Oak Park, Illinois where he lives with his wife of 25 years and his three children. Steve is a member of Hinshaw's Business Litigation Practice Group, and for several years served as the head of its School Law group. He has represented a wide variety of governmental clients, including cities, towns, villages, as well as state and local officials in all types of state and federal court litigation. Following his graduation from Loyola University's School of Law in Chicago, he joined the Cook County State's Attorneys Office and served in its General Criminal, Special Prosecution and Felony Trial Divisions. He has taken over 40 civil and criminal jury trials to verdict and is one of the few attorneys nationally who have tried and won for the defense a federal civil rights class action. Steve is a past president of the Illinois Association of Defense Counsel (IDC), and is a member of the American Bar Association. He formerly served as a Vice Chair of the ABA's Governmental Liability Committee. He is also a member of the Trial Lawyers Club of Chicago, the Society of Trial Lawyers, the Defense Research Institute (DRI), and the Association of Defense Trial Attorneys (ADTA). He currently serves as Illinois' state representative to DRI. Steve also is the creator and serves as editor-in-chief of his firm's blog on electronic discovery called Practical Ediscovery found at www.practicalediscovery.com. To see his full biography, go to www.hinshawlaw.com/spuiszis/ .