Scott Allen Berndtson

Scott A. Berndtson Scott graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law (IIT Chicago-Kent) in 1987 receiving the Bar and Gavel Award for outstanding service to the college, community and the profession of law. His legal career began in the storied civil litigation department of Baker & McKenzie’s Chicago office assisting in the defense of physicians, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies.

After three years at Baker & McKenzie Scott joined Keck, Mahin & Cate defending the errors and omissions policy of Continental Bank officers after the historic collapse of US oil and gas futures market in the 1980’s. This collapse required the US government to bail out the bank despite a billion dollar excess coverage policy of insurance. Scott managed a staff of 30 and helped to develop a defense which ultimately proved successful in the case. The case was later made into a book entitled "Belly Up."

His legal career has included serving as a Lecturing Professor of Law at IIT Chicago-Kent where he taught Dispute Resolution, Mediation and Arbitration, serving as Interim Academic Dean of the Aerospace Institute of Chicago and as an Adjunct Professor of Business Law at the University of Wisconsin. Over 30 years of practice Scott has handled diverse matters in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin and multiple federal jurisdictions.

Scott has been lead counsel on successful cases in multiple state and federal jurisdictions and as lead attorney on matters in over a dozen Counties in Illinois. Never turning away from difficult cases, Scott relied on his philosophy of science undergraduate education from the University of Illinois at Chicago when he brought the first case in Illinois sounding in thermo-acoustic electric wave blast brain injury. Later he successfully employed the same theory on a matter in a Wisconsin case utilizing the same neuropsychological expert from Northwestern University and physicians from the University of Chicago to make his case on the reliability of the cutting edge science of electron microscopy that proved his theory of injury.

After practicing in Chicago for a number of years Scott moved to rural Galena, Illinois where he raised his family of four children. He became a named partner with a prominent local lawfirm before creating his own law firm in 1997. Scott moved back to Chicago in 2002. Over his career he has developed skills in a wide area of practices including, injury law (defense and plaintiff), probate law, trusts and estates, land use, employment law, family law, insurance law and commercial litigation. In 2009 he joined forces with Michael J. Morrisroe of Morrisroe & Associates, Ltd, a prominent transactional and commercial litigation boutique law firm in DuPage County, concentrating in commercial litigation in both state and federal courts; including copyright, trademark, trade secrets, unfair trade practices, and patents matters, as well as, injury, probate and family law. Recent successes included achieving the dismissal of all 10 counts in a complex litigation action brought against a brilliant inventor in a heated lawsuit entailing over 2 million documents in discovery. In another recent federal matter, Scott teamed with Mike Morrisroe and firm attorney, John Madden, to successfully try and win another complex federal jury trial.  Scott's  successes have achieved an enviable following of loyal clients.  Scott is an acknowledged community volunteer winning service awards for helping to create a multi-state system of shelters and counseling service for battered and abused women and children and was recently acknowledged as a Pro Bono Attorney of the Year by the DuPage County Bar Association. Scott served as the Five County 15th Judicial District Assembly Member (Legislative Branch) of the Illinois State Bar Association and has served as the Chairman of the Illinois State Bar Association’s Law Office Management Section Council. He is a former Director of the American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Advisory Council. Scott was born in Chicago, grew up in Barrington, Illinois and now lives in Park Ridge, Illinois with his wife, Samim Munshi, also a distinguished attorney and former DuPage County Assistant State's Attorney Civil Bureau Attorney of the Year.