Hurley McKenna & Mertz, P.C.: The Firm That Made Illinois Hospitals Answer for Who They Let Operate

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At a Glance

Firm	Hurley McKenna & Mertz, P.C.
Founded	1992, by Christopher T. Hurley, originally as Christopher T. Hurley & Associates
Office	20 S. Clark Street, Suite 2250, Chicago, IL 60603 — single office
Focus	Medical malpractice and birth injury; institutional sexual abuse; product liability; vehicle collisions; nursing home neglect
Side of the docket	Plaintiff only
Size	Six attorneys listed
Signature result	$41,149,942.38 verdict, Pierce v. OSF HealthCare System, Cook County, May 7, 2024
Precedent that carries the firm’s name	Frigo v. Silver Cross Hospital, 377 Ill. App. 3d 43 (2007) — Illinois negligent credentialing
Bar standing	Michael T. Mertz, sitting President of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, 2026–27; Christopher T. Hurley, ITLA President 2016–17
Fee model	Contingency (per the firm)
Disciplinary record	No public discipline on file with the Illinois ARDC for any attorney at the firm

I. A Defense Lawyer Who Changed Sides, and Never Changed Buildings

Christopher T. Hurley was admitted to the Illinois bar on November 16, 1984, and spent the next eight years at Baker & McKenzie representing hospitals, corporations and insurance companies before opening his own plaintiff’s practice in 1992 — a sequence the firm states plainly on its own history page and which we could not corroborate outside it. The detail that matters is the arithmetic: he had nearly a decade of defending the institutions he now sues before he sued one.

The pattern repeated. Mark R. McKenna, admitted November 10, 1994, spent two years interning at Kirkland & Ellis before law school. Both name partners came up inside large-firm defense institutions and then left them. That is not the usual biography at a Chicago plaintiff’s firm, where the standard path runs through a State’s Attorney’s office or a larger plaintiff shop.

A note on the firm’s own dates, since we checked them: the About page says Mertz joined “after graduating from law school in…1996.” The ARDC record shows Michael T. Mertz was admitted November 6, 1997, and his DePaul degree is dated 1997 on his own bio, on Avvo, and in his Illinois Trial Lawyers Association presidential biography. The firm also advertises “over 35 years” for a practice founded in 1992, which is 34.

II. The Mechanism: One Doctrine, Litigated Until It Was Law

Most six-lawyer firms are defined by a practice area. This one is defined by a doctrine.

In Frigo v. Silver Cross Hospital and Medical Center, 377 Ill. App. 3d 43, 876 N.E.2d 697 (1st Dist. 2007), Hurley and McKenna appeared for a diabetic patient whose bunionectomy was performed by an under-credentialed podiatric surgeon and ended in osteomyelitis and a left-foot amputation. The verdict was $7,775,668.02, reduced to a $6,875,668.02 judgment after a $900,000 setoff, and it was affirmed in full. What the case actually established is more durable than the number: an Illinois hospital can be liable not for what the surgeon did in the room, but for having granted the privileges that put the surgeon in the room.

The firm has since built outward from that idea rather than away from it — institutional liability for who an institution vouches for. Its current book includes dedicated litigation against the Boy Scouts of America and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over child sexual abuse, and the multi-plaintiff litigation over Vernon Cannon, the DuPage-area OB-GYN, which ABC7 Chicago reported in 2023 was heading toward 53 suits, quoting Mertz by name. It is not a volume injury practice with an institutional sideline; it is an institutional-accountability practice that also handles collisions.

It is also a firm where the named partners try the cases. That is a structural fact, not a compliment — with six lawyers on the roster, two of them admitted in 2017 and 2024, there is no one else to send.

III. Practice Areas

• Medical malpractice, with a concentration in birth injury and cerebral palsy
• Sexual abuse, including institutional and clergy abuse
• Vehicle collisions
• Product liability
• Nursing home abuse and elder neglect
• General personal injury and wrongful death

The firm publishes no percentage breakdown. Of the two dozen results it lists, roughly half are birth injury or medical malpractice.

IV. Track Record

Past results do not guarantee or predict the outcome of any future case. Every figure below is identified by its source, and figures we could not confirm outside the firm’s own website are marked as such.

$41,149,942.38	Pierce v. OSF HealthCare System, Cook County, verdict May 7, 2024; judgment with prejudgment interest $44,863,583.75. Anticoagulation mismanagement resulting in cardioembolic stroke. Reported by the Peoria Journal Star, which names Hurley and the firm. The related forum ruling is published at Pierce v. Cherukuri, 2022 IL App (1st) 210339.
$20,000,000, reduced to $9,500,000	Ravizza v. PACCAR, Inc., Cook County, June 28, 2017 — $10M compensatory plus $10M punitive, after a truck hood collapsed and the client lost an eye. Reported by the Chicago Sun-Times. The Illinois Appellate Court vacated the entire punitive award on September 8, 2020 (2020 IL App (1st) 181109-U), affirming $9.5M. See Section VI.
~$13,000,000	Federal Tort Claims Act birth-injury settlement, January 2014. The figure is recited in the Seventh Circuit’s opinion in Humphrey ex rel. Humphrey-Lee v. United States (2015) — an independent record, which most settlements do not leave.
$7,775,668.02	Frigo v. Silver Cross Hospital (2007), affirmed. The firm’s own results page rounds this matter to “$9 Million,” a figure not reconcilable to the appellate record without post-judgment interest the page does not mention.
$5,412,000 and $6,000,000	Apartment-security verdict (Cook County, April 2022) and ambulance-collision settlement (Birmingham, Alabama, June 2022), attributed to Mertz. Echoed in his ITLA presidential biography.

Figures we could not verify. The firm advertises an “$89 million” settlement for 16 survivors of Boy Scout leader Thomas Hacker. The 16-plaintiff case is real and documented — Doe v. Boy Scouts of America, 2016 IL App (1st) 152406, lists 16 John Doe plaintiffs represented by Hurley and Evan M. Smola. The dollar figure appears in no news report, verdict reporter or court record we could locate, and the firm’s own dedicated page for that result now returns a 404. Sixteen further figures on the results page, and the aggregate claims of “over $900 million” (firm), “over $400,000,000” (Mertz) and “over $130,000,000” (McKenna), are likewise firm-sourced only. Settlements are routinely confidential; that explains the absence without curing it.

V. Client Voice

The reviews are bimodal, and the shape is worth stating before the quotes. Across 106 Google reviews the firm averages 4.4, but the distribution is 86 five-star reviews against 15 one-star reviews — roughly one in seven. We were not able to read the text of any of the negative reviews; Google, Yelp and the aggregator that publishes the count all blocked retrieval. We are reporting the distribution rather than implying we read both sides of it.

“Honest straight forward professional firm…They know just how your case will go and sure enough that’s what happens…All fees are clear and no hidden clauses…They aren’t TV attorney’s where you help pay for their commercials.”
— Corliss T., 5 stars, Yellow Pages, March 20, 2018

“I have worked with Mike Mertz for several years he won both my cases. He is straight forward no games he will tell yu good and bad…”
— “John,” 5 stars, Avvo, December 27, 2023

Both surviving positive reviews name Mertz. Hurley and McKenna each carry a 10.0 Avvo rating with zero client reviews behind it — the Avvo score is algorithmic and driven by self-reported profile data, not by clients.

VI. What the Firm Does Not Say About Its Own Best-Known Number

The firm’s results page currently describes the PACCAR case this way: “A Cook County, Illinois jury awarded $20 million to our client, including punitive damages, after a PACCAR truck’s hood collapsed and caused him to lose an eye.”

On September 8, 2020, the Illinois Appellate Court vacated the entire $10,000,000 punitive award, finding that “it was not Paccar’s manufactured device that actually failed” and that there was no evidence of deliberate intent to harm — the radiator and hood were aftermarket parts, and the safety cable at the heart of the punitive theory was not on the truck. The disposition was “Affirmed in part and vacated in part.” The surviving judgment was $9.5 million.

The punitive component the copy specifically highlights is the exact component the court struck, six years ago. We raise it because a reader comparing firms by advertised verdicts is comparing a number that no longer exists.

A second claim reads further than the record. The firm says of its wrongful-birth work that it “convinced the Illinois Supreme Court to hold that parents in Wrongful Birth cases are entitled to damages for pain, suffering and emotional distress in addition to compensation for the expense of raising their disabled child.” In Clark v. Children’s Memorial Hospital, 2011 IL 108656 — a case in which Hurley and McKenna appear — the Court did allow emotional-distress recovery, overruling the prior zone-of-danger test. It simultaneously reversed the appellate court and held that parents may not recover extraordinary care expenses past the child’s age of majority. That is a real win on one category and a real loss on the larger one.

Three further findings, each verified:

• An “Associate Attorney” who is not admitted in Illinois. Megan A. Cullen is listed on the roster with the title “Associate Attorney” and a bio stating she “contributes to personal injury and sexual abuse litigation.” She does not appear anywhere in the ARDC roll of Illinois lawyers. Her bio lists only North Carolina bar membership and a 2015 J.D. from Charlotte School of Law, which closed in 2017. The non-admission is not disclosed.
• An associate’s experience is easy to over-read. Brian P. Harris’s bio markets “rare plaintiff-and-defense experience” in catastrophic utility litigation. ARDC shows he was admitted November 6, 2024. The bio states no admission year.
• The site is roughly a year behind on its best current credential. Mertz’s bio still says “President-Elect” of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. He was installed as its 73rd President on June 5, 2026, and holds the office now. The entire legacy press archive has also been removed, with dozens of still-indexed URLs quietly serving the homepage instead of a 404.

What we did not find, having searched for it: no ARDC discipline against any attorney at the firm, past or present; no malpractice suit against the firm; no sanctions; no ethics findings. We validated our ARDC queries against control surnames that return dozens of records, so the null result is genuine rather than a broken search.

VII. Beyond the Courtroom

The following is reported by the firm and, except where noted, we could not confirm it independently. Hurley is described as an adjunct professor of trial practice at Northwestern and a volunteer with Project Common Hope, which works on education, housing and healthcare in Guatemala. Harris fundraises for the Hydrocephalus Association. There is no formal pro bono program, and no pro bono hours are published.

The firm’s genuine public-interest footprint is its litigation rather than its charity: the Boy Scouts abuse cases drew national coverage, and the Vernon Cannon litigation was reported by ABC7 Chicago with Mertz quoted by name.

VIII. Credentials and Recognition

Peer-reviewed and elected, verified against the conferring body:

• Michael T. Mertz — President, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, 2026–27. Installed June 5, 2026 as ITLA’s 73rd president; Board of Managers since 2012, Executive Committee since 2021. Confirmed on ITLA’s own officer roster.
• Christopher T. Hurley — President, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, 2016–17. Confirmed on ITLA’s past-presidents roster.
• Mark R. McKenna — elected to the ITLA Board of Managers in 2012; ITLA Amicus Committee.
• Super Lawyers selections for Hurley (2005–2027), Mertz (2009–2027) and McKenna (2014–2027) — peer nomination plus independent research, though the publisher also sells marketing to those selected.
• Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent for Hurley. McKenna’s bio claims AV; Avvo records him as BV, the tier below. Martindale blocked our verification, so we flag the conflict rather than resolve it.

Paid marketing programs, which should not be read as peer honors: Esteemed Lawyers of America, whose own join page states membership is $495 annually; National Trial Lawyers “Top 100” and “Top 40 Under 40,” a dues-based membership organization; and Avvo’s algorithmic 10.0 ratings. Hurley’s bio also claims fellowships in the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and ABOTA, and election to the ISBA Board of Governors in 2011; none of those directories is publicly searchable and we could not confirm any of them.

Neither the firm nor any of its attorneys appears in a Best Lawyers search, and the firm does not claim a listing.

IX. The Illinois Legal Backdrop, in Plain English

General information, not legal advice. Statutes below were verified against the Illinois General Assembly, the Illinois Courts, or the Illinois Comptroller as noted; deadlines turn on facts a lawyer has to look at.

Illinois does not recognize legal specialists. Illinois Rule of Professional Conduct 7.4(b) states that “The Supreme Court of Illinois does not recognize certifications of specialties in the practice of law, nor does it recognize certifications of expertise in any phase of the practice of law by any agency, governmental or private, or by any group, organization or association.” Rule 7.4(c) bars a lawyer from using “certified,” “specialist” or “expert” to describe their qualifications, except to identify an actual certificate or award — and then only with a disclaimer stating that the Supreme Court of Illinois does not recognize specialty certifications and that the credential is not a requirement to practice law in Illinois. Registered patent attorneys are the single carve-out. No lawyer at this firm is described as a specialist anywhere in this profile, and any Illinois firm that describes itself that way is telling you something about its compliance habits.

Two years, usually. 735 ILCS 5/13-202 gives two years from accrual to file a personal injury action.

Fifty-one percent ends the case. Under 735 ILCS 5/2-1116, a plaintiff more than 50% at fault recovers nothing. At 50% or below, damages are reduced by the plaintiff’s share. No contributory fault may be attributed to a plaintiff suing over childhood sexual abuse.

Children get the clock back. 735 ILCS 5/13-211 gives a person injured before turning 18 two years from their eighteenth birthday.

Public bodies are far shorter. Under 745 ILCS 10/8-101(a), a claim against a local public entity or its employee — a city, a park district, a school district — must be filed within one year. Subsection (b) gives two years, with a four-year repose, only for claims arising out of patient care. Missing the one-year deadline is the most common way a good Illinois case dies.

The CTA is one year, and there is no longer a notice requirement. 70 ILCS 3605/41 gives one year from accrual to sue the Chicago Transit Authority. The six-month written notice requirement that older articles still describe was repealed effective June 1, 2009 by P.A. 96-12. It is not current law.

Wrongful death. Under 740 ILCS 180/1 and 180/2, the action is brought by the decedent’s personal representative for the exclusive benefit of the surviving spouse and next of kin, generally within two years of death — five years where the death resulted from violent intentional conduct, or one year after final disposition of a related criminal case for certain charged offenses.

Medical malpractice carries its own limitation and repose framework, which we have not restated here because the numbers turn on discovery and on the patient’s age.

X. The Awesome Attorneys Assessment

The specific thing Hurley McKenna & Mertz has that most Chicago injury firms do not is a doctrine with its name on it. Frigo is why an Illinois hospital can be made to answer for granting privileges to a surgeon who should not have had them, and the firm has spent the twenty years since building the same argument against scouting organizations, churches and medical groups. If your case is about an institution that vouched for someone it should have checked, this is a firm that has already litigated the theory to judgment.

The trade-off runs in two directions. The first is scale: six lawyers, two of them admitted in 2017 and 2024, cannot staff a large or fast-moving matter the way a thirty-lawyer firm can, and the aggressive institutional cases the firm is known for are exactly the ones that consume years of lawyer-hours. The second is harder to say politely. The marketing outruns the record more than it should for a firm this good — a headline verdict advertised at double its surviving value six years after the appellate court cut it; a $89 million settlement figure with no trace outside the firm’s own site and a dead link where its page used to be; a roster title of “Associate Attorney” on someone not admitted in Illinois; a president-elect credential a year out of date. None of that is discipline, and the ARDC record is clean. It is a reason to ask the firm directly what a published figure actually became, and to get the answer before you sign.

This firm is right for the plaintiff with a hard institutional case and the patience for it — a birth injury, a credentialing failure, an abuse claim against an organization with lawyers of its own. It is a poorer fit for someone who wants a fast soft-tissue settlement, or who needs a deep bench of associates to move quickly on their behalf.

Methodology & Sourcing

Research conducted September 13, 2026. Attorney admission dates and disciplinary status were taken from Illinois ARDC registration records, not from the firm. Verdicts and settlements were checked against published appellate opinions (Illinois Courts, CourtListener, Justia, FindLaw), named news coverage (Chicago Sun-Times, Peoria Journal Star, Bloomberg Law, Land Line, ABC7 Chicago) and, where no independent source exists, are identified in-text as firm-sourced. Bar credentials were verified against the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association’s own rosters. Statutes were verified against the Illinois General Assembly (735 ILCS 5/13-202, 5/2-1116, 5/13-211), the Illinois Courts’ official rule text (Ill. R. Prof’l Conduct 7.4), and the current Illinois Compiled Statutes as published by Justia and corroborated by Illinois Legal Aid Online (745 ILCS 10/8-101, 70 ILCS 3605/41, 740 ILCS 180/1–2). Review counts were taken from an aggregator’s published distribution; the text of negative reviews could not be retrieved and we say so rather than characterizing what we did not read. Claims we could not verify are marked as unverified rather than softened or omitted.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys does not endorse, recommend, or warrant any firm profiled on this site. Inclusion is not paid placement, and no firm pays to appear, to be positioned, or to have material removed. “Awesome Attorneys” is a brand name only; it is not a rating, ranking, certification or assessment of any lawyer’s ability. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and reading it creates no attorney-client relationship. Facts are current only as of the research date above, and firm addresses, rosters, credentials and case outcomes change. Verify anything you intend to rely on directly with the firm and with the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.