Lawrence H. Hyman - Chicago, IL

Overview

Lawrence was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Lane Tech High School and went on to receive his Bachelor of Arts degree at Northwestern University. He received his Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law. After law school, he started his legal career as an Assistant State’s Attorney in Cook County. He became a supervisor of thirty other lawyers for then State’s Attorney Richard Daley.

It was a natural progression from representing victims of crime to victims of negligence and injustice. In 1982, Lawrence left the State’s Attorneys office and worked as an associate in both defense and plaintiffs law firms. In 1986, he founded his own firm handling a wide variety of injury and other trial cases.

As a young man growing up in Chicago Lawrence spent some of his school breaks visiting courtrooms and watching trials. He would watch lawyers arguing cases and sit by the side of the judge’s bench as a guest of family friends who were judges. They encouraged him to follow the law as a career. One judge, the late federal judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz, had a huge influence on Lawrence’s desire to practice law. He found he enjoyed researching and looking for how issues develop and learning the history of a particular problem.

Lawrence attributes his desire to help others to his father, who practiced as a physician in Chicago. Like his father. who spent many years helping others at Cook County Hospital, Lawrence spent the first part of his legal career as a Cook County State’s Attorney representing victims of crime. He learned to care deeply about what is fair and what is right, and he is eager to help those that have been wronged.

Lawrence and his associate started a live call-in program on Chicago Access television called “Legally Speaking” in 1997. He fielded calls on all types of legal issues from viewers while appearing each week. His guests included attorneys in special practice fields as well as circuit court and appellate court justices.

Still involved in high profile criminal cases, Lawrence appeared before the United States Supreme Court in 2004 to participate in a crucial constitutional issue involving the right of the police to use a dog to walk around a citizen’s car after being stopped by the police.

Today, Lawrence continues his practice in both civil and criminal matters in trial and appellate courts in Illinois and throughout the United States.