When Winnetka attorney Patrick A. Salvi II recently learned he was named Chicago Lawyer Magazine’s 2023 “Person of the Year” he was surprised and called the honor “personally very gratifying.”
Chicago Lawyer Magazine’s Managing Editor John McNally said the award is given to a “newsmaker, trendsetter or legal leader” in the Chicago legal community and cited Salvi being retained by a former Northwestern University football player to file the first lawsuit against the school over claims of hazing and sexual abuse as another reason he was given the award.
Salvi, 41, is managing partner of Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard’s Chicago office, which represents more than 50 former NU student athletes claiming they suffered hazing and other forms of abuse at the school. In addition the firm was instrumental in plaintiffs securing a $408 million award from Sterigenics after the company announce last year that their Willowbrook facility released the cancer-causing chemical “ethylene oxide.”
As a past president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, Salvi helped pass meaningful legislation in support of plaintiffs through the Illinois General Assembly last year, another reason he was chosen, McNally said. Silva was raised in Lake Forest, graduated J.D. Cum Laude, from Notre Dame Law School in 2007. He lives in Winnetka with his wife, Julianna, and their three young children. He recently did an interview with the Pioneer Press to discuss the award and his legal career.
Why did you become an attorney?
I was exposed to it at a very young age because my Dad’s a lawyer. My granddad was a lawyer. I’ve got many uncles and aunts that are lawyers. I had exposure at a young age and as I grew up and got into college, I was very much drawn to law school in a variety of ways. As I went through law and particularly got into trial advocacy, certainly the combination of being able to help people who are injured along with the competitive nature of it appealed to me. I’m a big sports fan and that competition exists in this line of work and it’s part of what drives me to help my clients.
What have been some of your biggest satisfactions as an attorney?
Personally, what I try to do from one trial to the next, from one day, week, month, year to the next is to try and improve as a trial lawyer. I think my track record has shown that improvement. It’s not like I’ve won every case I’ve ever tried but I just know from my own experiences and from the results, I’ve become a more capable trial attorney over the years and I’ve worked very hard to hone my craft. At the end of the day our goal is to help our clients and I think we do that with excellence.
What do you see as your biggest challenges over the past 17 years?
As you try to continue to grow as a trial lawyer and as you take on greater responsibility, cases with higher stakes require more of you. If you want to continue to improve and level up to be great, it’s hard. If it were easy anybody would do it. It can be challenging with your family, your kids, your wife, your friends. Sometimes those things have to be put aside if you’re going to be a trial lawyer and that’s hard. Balancing that gets more and more challenging and it’s something I work on every day.
The Chicago Lawyer Magazine’s Person of the Year is an honor given to the “newsmaker, trendsetter or legal leader of the year.” Which of those do you most identify with?
Thankfully that’s for someone else to decide. I don’t want at all to come off as arrogant. It’s with great humility I accepted that award. What I would be most proud of is ‘legal leader.’ I think leadership is incredibly important and I was in that role in ITLA as president. I really relished it and enjoyed it in large part because I wanted to serve our members and all of our members clients around the state to ensure that I did a good job. It cannot go without mentioning that I had incredible teams behind me.
What were your thoughts when you first heard about hazing allegations at Northwestern University?
On the one hand I had heard the news and I was very much familiar with what was in the public sphere and what had taken place within the football program and the hazing allegations, so I was very much interested in trying to help these folks. Then as dozen of more people came forward … and wanted to move forward with a claim against Northwestern and I heard their stories, I was very compelled by the mission and I remain compelled to this day. We feel strongly that Northwestern needs to show that they have changed their ways and they need to make recompense with these former student athletes that have been harmed. That’s what we’re going to try and accomplish in that litigation. We also hope there’s a broader impact so that college athletics is no longer this strange culture of toxic masculinity and a place where abuse is tolerated despite the fact these are basically kids.
In a news release after you got the award you were quoted as saying” “I have been blessed to have the opportunity to help injured victims and to have a positive impact in the State of Illinois.” What does being ‘blessed’ mean to you?
In a lot of ways I stand on the shoulders of giants. One obvious example is my dad. I came into this law firm … it was already a great law firm. To be able to learn in that environment, to be able to handle cases that a law firm of this stature handles, from the beginning of my career, was an absolute blessing and it’s not lost on me for one second that that is a unique experience. Not every lawyer leaves law school and is able to do the things I was able to do from a very early part of my career. That also goes for ITLA, an amazing organization that’s had incredible leaders. From the mentorship I have received from my dad and others to the incredible support of our firm and my family, I have been blessed to have the opportunity to help injured victims and to have a positive impact in the State of Illinois.
What’s your advice to attorneys just starting out?
Find something you’re passionate about. Understanding there are plenty of realities associated with this: don’t worry too much about the money. If you become great you will have opportunities to earn money. Instead find something that you’re passionate about. Something that you care about. Seek to do good. Always be honest and ethical. If you do all those things and you stay on that path good things will happen. You will have great professional satisfaction.
How do you spend time away from work?
Whenever I can I will be with my family. It’s my wife and three kids first and foremost and then not too distant from that are my brothers and their families and my two parents and my wife’s family. When I’m not working I’m basically with family all the time.
A couple of words that make most civil attorney shutter are “tort reform.” Some say it’s needed because huge monetary awards are driving up insurance rates and other costs? What’s your reply to them?
I don’t think any careful analysis bares that out. The flip side to any concern about increased insurance rates, which I think statistically it’s been proven that market factors irrespective of tort laws have a much more profound impact on what insurance rates are. You really need look no further than to some of the states that have some of the worst metrics as it relates to health care. Whether it’s neonatal care, infant mortality, maternal mortality as it relates to the birthing process, you’re going to find states that have tort reform, medical malpractice reform, at the top of the list as it relates to the worst statistics on health care. There’s no doubt that the tort system holds people accountable, makes the country a safer place. The problem is when businesses put profits over people. Then they have to answer to people like me and more importantly to my clients who hire me and want me to give them a voice in the legal system.
What, if any, changes would you like to see in the law?
The one that I really wanted to see is that punitive damages be made available for families of someone who has died due to the willful or intentional conduct of another. We accomplished that. (The legislation passed in 2023 as part of the ITLA legislative agenda.) That was a major defect in the law that we got passed, that punitive damages are now available in wrongful death cases whereas before it was only injury cases. That didn’t make any sense.
What are your future plans?
Typically I don’t look too far ahead. It’s hard for me to look more than three to five years ahead because that’s usually the life cycle of a case. It might sound boring but I just want to keep doing what I’m doing in terms of continuing to take on more and more challenges and to continue to hone my craft and get better at being a trial lawyer. It’s what I am. It’s my identity professionally. It’s what I love, but perhaps even more so it’s what I want to be great at. I have a deep desire to be great but you can never take that for granted.
Looking back what advice would you give yourself as you graduated law school?
One of them would be try more cases. In the first seven or so years of my career, I was too nervous to enter that arena. That’s a lesson I think I’ve learned, but I need to continue to relearn it every day. I think I would tell myself ‘throughout your legal career never be afraid to roll up your sleeves.’ That’s what it always comes down to. When something new and challenging presents itself you can’t think of it as scary. You need to think of it as an opportunity. Figure out the best solution for your client. When you do that good things happen. It’s when you cower in fear, when you’re afraid of the work that you end up making decisions that are not in the best interest of your clients. I would emphasize that with my younger self.
Brian L. Cox is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.
