Partner

Stepfon Smith is a partner in the firm’s Chicago office. Prior to joining SmithAmundsen, Stepfon served as a senior attorney for a Chicago municipal corporation and worked as an associate attorney in insurance litigation at a Chicago based property and casualty insurance carrier. Prior to practicing law, Stepfon was in management with a Fortune 50 Company in it’s human resources department and spent several years in management consulting with a “Big 6” management consulting firm based in Chicago.

Stepfon has tried over 20 jury cases to verdict, defending municipal and corporate clients in state and federal courts and at over 150 binding and non-binding arbitration hearings. Stepfon has obtained several not guilty verdicts at trial for his insured’s and self-insured institutional and municipal clients in various Illinois state courts and has obtained several favorable outcomes disposing of cases at arbitration or by way of dispositive motion. In 2005, Stepfon was recognized in the Cook County Jury Verdict Reporter Trial Index for his work as a trial lawyer taking 11 cases to jury trial within a 12 month period. Stepfon’s exemplary trial results can be obtained from the Cook County Verdict Reporter. Seventy-five percent of Stepfon’s practice is devoted to the representation of self-insured corporations, municipalities, police departments, fire departments, and federal and local public housing agencies before state and federal courts and before the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Illinois Department of Human Rights.

The balance of Stepfon’s professional time is devoted to the representation of land developers, common interest communities, and small to mid-size corporate entities in commercial litigation. Stepfon is also an Adjunct Professor of Business Law at North Park University in Chicago as well as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Legal Studies Bachelor of Arts program at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. Stepfon is licensed to practice law before the Supreme Court of Illinois and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and is a Member of the Federal Trial Bar (membership in the Federal Trial Bar is reserved only for attorneys that have sufficient first-chair jury trial experience in state or federal courts).

Some of Stepfon's recent representative matters include:

Obtained two not guilty verdicts in a negligence action brought by customers of a transportation company.
Received a jury verdict awarding 30% contributory negligence when defending a client accused of striking a pedestrian with a motor vehicle.
For a public entity, obtained summary judgment in a case involving an allegation of employee negligence.
Obtained case dismissal in a premises liability case arguing the defense of natural accumulation.
As defense counsel for a hospital, obtained a judgment denying over $31,000.00 in medical bills in a case involving an alleged work related accident, through the use of a credible medical expert.
As defense counsel for several insureds of a local property and casualty insurer, obtained not guilty verdicts in five separate and distinct subrogation actions brought by insurance carriers.
Obtained various other case dismissals via dispositive motion and significantly reduced verdicts in Cook, Kane, and Will Counties in the State of Illinois.