TIMOTHY J. CAVANAGH

TIMOTHY J. Cavanagh is the founding partner of Cavanagh Law Group in Chicago. He concentrates his practice in plaintiffs’ personal injury trial work and handles catastrophic injury, medical malpractice and wrongful death cases.

Cavanagh was named the Best Lawyers 2022

Plaintiffs’ Personal Injury Litigation Lawyer of the Year in Chicago, and has been listed in The

Best Lawyers in America every year since 2015.

His firm has been included in U.S. News &

World Report’s Best Law Firms list annually since

2016. The firm was given a Tier 1 ranking.

Lawdragon magazine has named Cavanagh to the 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers guide each of the four times it’s been published. Leading Lawyers Network has named him a Leading Lawyer every year since its inception in 2003; the organization recognizes the top five percent of lawyers in Illinois.

Cavanagh has been recognized by Illinois Super Lawyers every year since 2005. He twice received the Trial Lawyers Excellence

Award from the Law Bulletin Publishing Company and the Cook County Jury Verdict Reporter.

Cavanagh has obtained more than 60 verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million in his career. His $55 million verdict against the Canadian National Railroad was recognized by The National Law Journal as one of the Top 100 verdicts in the nation.

He obtained a $20 million settlement from the city of Chicago in a high-profile “code of silence” case. A drunken off-duty Chicago police officer drove and struck another vehicle causing a fire. Both passengers were killed.

During the federal court trial, Cavanagh uncovered crucial and damaging evidence that the city of Chicago failed to disclose during discovery. He successfully argued that the city and police department allowed the officer, who had a history of alcoholism, to feel empowered to drive drunk with impunity because the department had previously covered for him.

In the last several years, Cavanagh obtained a $12.5 million settlement in a medical malpractice case, a $13.7 million verdict in an auto crash case, a $7.5 million settlement on behalf of a woman who suffered traumatic injuries after being struck by a passing Metra commuter train, and a $5.9 million settlement for the family of a man who was struck and killed by a semitruck.

Cavanagh earned a BA from John Carroll University, and a JD from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. He serves on the Board of Directors for John Carroll.

He is also a member of the Board of Managers for the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, where he has served on the Executive Committee for the last seven years and will serve as president in 2025. Cavanagh serves on the Ambassadors Board of Mercy Home for Boys & Girls, as well as the Board of Directors of the Irish Fellowship Club of Chicago. He is a director of the Western Golf Association Evans Scholars Foundation.

Cavanagh’s grandparents Mike and Delia Tully were natives of Co. Mayo. He and his wife, fellow Irish Legal 100 member Stacey Feeley Cavanagh, have six children: Ryan, Jack, Charlie, TJ, Kiley and Kate.