CHICAGO, IL, December 11, 2023 – Carla Colaianni, a plaintiff’s personal injury trial lawyer at Smith LaCien LLP, was among a group of elite women lawyers who were honored by Law Bulletin Media at a reception at the Westin Hotel in downtown Chicago on November 28.
The 2024 honorees were selected based on their legal experience and success, as well as their work to advance other women in the profession. Colaianni represents clients in complex medical negligence and birth injury cases in both the trial and appellate courts.
Colaianni has cultivated relationships with leading female experts in the medical and scientific fields to bring a diverse voice to expert testimony in complex malpractice cases. She also mentors Allyson Cox, an associate lawyer at the firm, and they work together on cases as well as volunteer projects for the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois.
After receiving an undergraduate degree, Colaianni worked as a vocational training instructor at a Chicago-based refugee resettlement agency. The injustices which her students had experienced inspired her to become a lawyer. She received her law degree from DePaul University College of Law, Cum Laude, in 2007, and initially worked full-time alongside a solo practitioner injury lawyer in Chicago.
Colaianni spent several years practicing in her home state of New York at a leading plaintiff’s law firm where she handled complex birth injury cases and took charge of most of the firm’s child sexual abuse cases which poured in when the state enacted the Child Victims Act. The law extended the Statute of Limitations that finally allowed victims of sexual abuse to fight for justice. She returned to Chicago in 2021 to join Smith LaCien.
“We are very proud of Carla for receiving this award,” said Todd A. Smith, a founding partner. “She has proven to be a strategic, creative and caring trial lawyer for those who have suffered catastrophic injuries. In the process, she has become recognized as a beacon of light for those who sought to triumph over adversity.”
Smith LaCien LLP concentrates in catastrophic personal injury, medical malpractice, wrongful death, trucking litigation, birth injuries and mass torts. The firm has a lengthy track record of achieving exceptional results for clients, with more than $2.5 billion in verdicts and settlements, and over 100 cases with results of at least $1 million each.
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