Eva Matela Kogut

James H. Whalen is the co-managing partner of Lipe Lyons Murphy Nahrstadt & Pontikis LTD, a Chicago, Illinois law firm. He practices in the areas of Litigation – Insurance, tort defense, commercial litigation, and product liability. Mr. Whalen represents clients in state and federal courts, as well as before state administrative bodies. His practice includes construction, business, commercial, product liability, employment discrimination, and premises liability litigation. Mr. Whale...

John represents large publicly traded and privately held businesses in controversies, transactional matters and tax planning involving state and local corporate income/franchise taxes, gross receipts taxes, sales and use taxes, and other business privilege taxes. He also defends clients in state tax audits and litigation before courts, administrative agencies and departments of revenue throughout the country. In addition to his state and local tax practice, John is also one of the nation&rsqu...

Matthew Steinmetz focuses primarily on leveraged buyouts of public and private companies, as well as recaps and joint ventures. His experience spans a wide variety of sectors, including technology, media, healthcare, industrials and retail. His principal clients include both large cap and middle cap leveraged buyout funds, located in the U.S. and abroad. In addition to his considerable transactional work, he is a trusted advisor to a number of senior PE fund managers.

Gregory S. Gistenson is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Litigation - Construction. Gregory S., who practices law in Chicago, Illinois, has been recognized since 2025. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Gregory S. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.

A member of Winston’s Executive Committee and winner of Best Lawyers’ “Lawyer of the Year” honor for securities and capital markets work in Chicago, Bruce represents clients in a variety of securities and financial matters, advising major corporations on their M&A transactions, debt offerings and other key capital market strategies and governance matters. Please read more here: https://www.winston.com/en/who-we-are/professionals/toth-bruce-a.html

Kristen Hudson represents businesses and business people in complex commercial litigation and product liability cases in state and federal courts in Texas, Illinois and across the country. Most recently, in early 2022, Kristen was part of a trial team that received a defense verdict in a four-week jury trial in Illinois involving significant eight-figure liability for alleged benzene exposure in the printing industry. In 2021, Kristen successfully defeated three separate attempts at a tempora...

Francis A. Citera is Co-Chair of the firm's Products Liability & Mass Torts Litigation Group and Co-Chair of the Chicago Litigation Practice. Frank has 30 years of experience defending purported class actions, toxic tort actions, and other complex litigation in both federal and state courts. He has tried many cases, including an action by the Government to enforce a unilateral administrative order, an allocation case among potentially responsible parties, and a complex product liability, ...

Clients engaged in complex commercial real estate and corporate finance transactions count on LaVon M. Johns’ experience, insight, and commitment to help them anticipate issues, address challenges, and, ultimately, get to “yes.” A consummate dealmaker who balances business savvy and legal know-how with outstanding communication skills and a deep commitment to building long-term client relationships, LaVon focuses her practice on complex commercial real estate and finance mat...

Diana Z. Bowman is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Construction Law. Diana Z., who practices law in Chicago, Illinois, has been recognized since 2025. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Diana Z. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.

Howard Schaffner is a senior partner in firm of Hofeld and Schaffner. The Hofeld and Schaffner law firm is been honored to be ranked as a top tier law firm by US News and World Reports and to have received the highest ranking from Martindale Hubble. As a specialist in plaintiff’ s personal injury Mr. Schaffner has achieved multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements in well over 150 cases. A few examples include; $39,000,000.00 verdict in a drug product liability case $16,000,000.00 ve...