Attorney Thomas Leahy combined skill and compassion in his work as a trial lawyer primarily for plaintiffs in personal injury, medical malpractice and wrongful death cases.
“Tom had an innate sense of justice and his competitive nature really worked in this field because he thrived on helping people who can’t help themselves,” said Peter Hoste, his partner in the firm of Leahy & Hoste.
Hoste pointed to several of the cases he and Mr. Leahy won, including a 2002 medical malpractice case verdict of $22.6 million for Mr. Leahy’s client and a 2004 verdict of $19.4 million for the family of a man killed in a truck accident.
Mr. Leahy, 62, died of cancer Saturday, Aug. 23, in Horizon Hospice & Palliative Care in Chicago, according to his wife, Gaile. The longtime Chicago resident also had a home in Lake Geneva, Wis.
He was born and grew up in Highland Park and graduated from Highland Park High School. After earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, he entered Loyola University Chicago’s School of Law.
His path through law school was not quite a straight line, as he took a year off to ride his motorcycle out West.
“Tom was a little bit of a free spirit,” said Jim Faught, a law school classmate and now the school’s associate dean for administration. “I think he just wanted to take an adventure before his career began.
Faught said Mr. Leahy got to California, but he also spent some time in Albuquerque, N.M., working for a law firm there.
During law school, he worked for a Chicago-based personal injury defense firm. After graduating from Loyola, Mr. Leahy began working with the late Philip Corboy, a well-known Chicago trial lawyer, before starting his own firm in 1980.
Hoste said he started working for Mr. Leahy right out of law school in 1997 and by 2002 the two established their partnership.
“He gave me a start and we worked together and had some good results,” Hoste said.
According to Hoste, Mr. Leahy’s successes came from his ability to both understand complicated issues and the people involved in his cases.
“He figured out a way to understand the underlying issue and distill it down and explain it in a way that juries could understand and do it in a likable way, without coming off as a know-it-all or a showoff,” Hoste said.
In addition to his trial work, Mr. Leahy was active in a number of legal organizations, including the Illinois State Bar Association, where he was president in 1993-1994. In 1995, he became chairman of the association’s ISBA Mutual Insurance Company and continued to serve as a member of the board of directors and of the claims committee.
Mr. Leahy helped organize the state bar association’s effort to modify the American Bar Association’s Standards for Legal Education, to require law schools to better train law students. Mr. Leahy also led the effort to mandate clinical education programs for all law schools, in part to help people in the community unable to afford legal services, according to the association.
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But he was best known as an outstanding trial lawyer.
“He was really noted for his cross-examinations during trial,” his wife said. “I believe every client believed he had put his heart and soul into their case.”
Outside the courtroom, Mr. Leahy was a collector of fine wines and art and also an avid traveler.
Another law school classmate, Jerry Latherow, talked about how, while some people make “bucket lists” of things to do someday, Mr. Leahy was a doer, organizing and taking excursions that included a trip to Africa with other lawyers and a cruise on the Danube River with friends.
“For Tom, that someday was today,” Latherow said.
Other survivors include a daughter, Taylor; a sister, Susan Volkmann; and brothers William Jr., David and Brian.
Services were held.