Benz opens solo office in Chicago

Mary Patricia Benz, an experienced trial and appellate lawyer, opened her practice in downtown Chicago concentrating on litigation and appeals, mediation and arbitration, and lawyer professional responsibility matters. In her business model, Ms. Benz often works with co-counsel, adding collaborative services and offering clients an efficient, creative and personal approach to complex legal problems. Ms. Benz has over 30 years of experience in state and federal courts and will focus on dispute resolution for individuals and businesses including lawyers, educators, and other professionals. Recent cases include a dispute among the principals of a real estate development company, a contract dispute among pharmaceutical vendors, an alleged class action involving claims of violation of individuals’ rights of publicity, insurance disputes involving property damage coverage and title insurance, consumer disputes, breach of fiduciary duty claims, employment disputes, professional malpractice and malicious prosecution claims, disputes related to attorney’s fees and professional discipline, and legal ethics counseling. For more than 10 years, Ms. Benz served as a volunteer on the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) hearing and inquiry boards providing her with a solid base for representing lawyers at ARDC and counseling lawyers about ethics issues. Ms. Benz, an executive board member of the Association of Attorney-Mediators, Illinois chapter, is a court certified arbitrator and mediator in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. Ms. Benz is also listed on the American Arbitration Association national commercial arbitrators roster. She has been an adjunct faculty member at Loyola University of Chicago School of Law teaching trial practice. She has also been an adjunct professor teaching trial advocacy course at Northwestern University School of Law for 20 years and has been an instructor for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) Midwest Deposition Program for over 14 years. Previously, Ms. Benz spent 10 years as a litigation partner at Winston & Strawn LLP. Prior to that, she was a partner at the Chicago firms of Quinlan & Crisham Ltd. and Phelan Pope & John, Ltd.