Donald James Morrison

Donald J. Morrison was born in Park Ridge, Illinois on April 5, 1969. He was the youngest of eight children of Donald T. Morrison and Catherine E. Morrison, and has lived his entire life in the Lake County area. Mr. Morrison received his secondary education at Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Illinois, where he graduated in 1987. He attended Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. While at Indiana, Mr. Morrison majored in Finance and received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration in 1991. After his graduation from Indiana University, Mr. Morrison attended the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Morrison served as an editor of the John Marshall Law Review and received his Juris Doctorate degree with Honors from John Marshall in 1994. He was then admitted to practice law before the Illinois Supreme Court and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. In 2003, he was admitted as an attorney in the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

Upon his admission to the Illinois bar in 1994, Mr. Morrison became an Assistant State's Attorney in the Lake County State's Attorney's Office. While at the State's Attorney's Office, Mr. Morrison was a prosecutor in the Criminal Division. Mr. Morrison successfully prosecuted all types of traffic, DUI, misdemeanor, and felony cases, including homicides, sexual assault cases, gang related crimes, and white collar crime cases. He was assigned to five First Degree Murder cases, tried all five cases to verdict, and obtained First Degree Murder convictions on all five cases. While he was at the State's Attorney's Office, Mr. Morrison tried over 60 jury trials and approximately 80 bench trials to verdict. Upon leaving the Office in 1999, Mr. Morrison was presented with the Prosecutor of the Year Award by the Lake County Children's Advocacy Center.

In 1999, Mr. Morrison became an associate with the law firm of Morrison & Morrison, P.C. and became a partner in 2002. He brought his experience as a felony prosecutor to the law firm of Morrison & Morrison, P.C. and opened up the practice to now include criminal litigation as well as civil litigation. He has successfully obtained acquittals, dismissals, and reduce charges in all types of criminal cases including crimes of violence, drug charges, sex cases, and DUI’s.

Mr. Morrison now concentrates the majority of his practice in plaintiffs personal injury, product liability, and medical malpractice litigation. For the past 15 years, he has had significant experience on both the plaintiff and defendant side of complex product liability and medical malpractice lawsuits. He has obtained several multi-million dollar verdicts and settlement for plaintiffs in personal injury, product liability, and medical malpractice lawsuits. Specifically, he recently handled a $2.5 million medical malpractice verdict, a $2.48 million personal injury settlement, a $2 million auto accident settlement, a $1 million product liability settlement, a $790,000 medical malpractice verdict, and a $272,000 slip and fall verdict.

Donald J. Morrison has also successfully defended physicians and hospitals in medical malpractice cases and successfully defended manufacturers in product liability cases. He is also proficient in commercial litigation and construction litigation. He personally tried a case which resulted in a $4.75 million verdict in favor of his client in a construction/ commercial litigation case. He has written and lectured extensively in the areas of civil litigation and trial advocacy.

He is a member of the American Association for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Illinois Bar Association. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Lake County Bar Association and currently serves as the Chairman of the Lake County Bar Association Judicial Selection and Retention Committee. He will be sworn in as Second Vice President of the Lake County Bar Association in June of 2014.