Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
It seemed like only yesterday that we highlighted the career of Patrick A. Salvi Jr. in these pages upon his being named one of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin prestigious list of 40 lawyers under the age of 40 (Fra Noi, January 2013). As I mentioned then, the young Salvi boasts of an impressive legal pedigree. His grandfather, Albert, practiced law for decades in Lake County, and five of Albert’s nine children, including Patrick’s father, are lawyers.
Using the old adage, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” we highlight this month the senior Patrick A. Salvi, renowned catastrophic injury lawyer, raconteur and renaissance man, as the reader will see hereafter.
Patrick A. Salvi concentrates his legal practice in several limited areas primarily involving a trial practice in cases concerning serious personal injury, medical malpractice and wrongful death. Mr. Salvi recently achieved record breaking jury verdicts and settlements on behalf of his clients including a record high $33 million jury verdict. Additionally, he very recently won medical malpractice settlements of $15 million (a record high), $12.5 million, $12 million, $7.25 million, $5 million, and $3 million and wrongful death settlements for $9 million, $8.25 million (a record high) and $3.75 million, $3.1 million and personal injury cases for $2.82 million, $1.25 million and $1.1 million.
Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard was established by Mr. Salvi in Waukegan, Illinois in 1982. With offices in Chicago and Waukegan, the law firm has 12 lawyers and is supported by more than 25 staff members including paralegals, nurse paralegals and administrative assistants.
Today, Mr. Salvi is ranked by his peers as one of the most prominent attorneys in the country in his field. He was named one of the “Best Lawyers in America” by Woodward/White Inc. Mr. Salvi was the recipient of a 2011 and 2012 Award for Trial Lawyer Excellence by The Jury Verdict Reporter and Law Bulletin Publishing Company. In 2013, Mr. Salvi was appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Jury Instructions in Civil Cases. He is also a member of the prestigious Economic Club of Chicago providing members of the business world a platform to express and discuss economic, business and social issues. Other accolades include: “Highest Rating for Legal Ability and General Recommendation” and “Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers” from Martindale Hubbell American Law Directory; member of the AAJ Leaders Forum; “The Leading American Attorneys of Illinois” from The Consumer Law Guidebook; “One of the Top Ten Personal Injury Lawyers in Illinois” and “Top 5% of all Lawyers in Illinois” from a survey of lawyers and judges conducted by the Law Bulletin Publishing Company’s Leading Lawyer Network. In 2001 he was invited to become a fellow in the prestigious International Academy of Trial Lawyers. He is also a former President of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and served a three-year term (2010-2012) as Chairman on the Character and Fitness, 2nd District Committee of the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar. Additionally, Mr. Salvi is Chairman of the Law School Advisory Council and is an Adjunct Law Professor at the University of Notre Dame, teaching “Personal Injury Litigation” to 3rd year law students. And the list of his accomplishments and recognitions could go on and on.
Born the oldest of nine children to an attorney father who worked as general practitioner in Lake Zurich, Salvi always had an interest in sports. He coached his younger brother’s baseball teams and scratched his own sports itch by playing goalie for traveling hockey teams in Northbrook.
He went to St. Mary’s University of Minnesota with hopes to play goalie at the NCAA level, but he didn’t make the cut — the team had seven goalies vying for two spots. So he spent four years manning the net in a Winona city league.
After graduating from Notre Dame Law School in 1978, Salvi went into his father’s general law practice. He was drawn to the courtroom and soon found the fastest way to spend time at trial was picking up cases from the Lake County public defender’s office.
Salvi began practicing with the late and truly respected and revered Michael Schostok out of their Waukegan office. A string of successes led up to the firm’s 1999 opening of a Chicago office.
Shortly after that, Salvi & Schostok became Salvi Schostok & Pritchard, with the addition of David Prtichard, who at that point was a 22-year veteran defense lawyer.
In 2008, with his law firm established in Chicago, Salvi bought the Gary SouthShore RailCats. It was the first of what are now his three minor league baseball teams.
His second team — the Schaumburg Boomers — came in 2011 after the Schaumburg Flyers franchise stalled; its overdue rent payments led to the Boomers’ lease at the Schaumburg stadium. The North Shore Navigators are a New England wood-bat, summer league team for college players based in Lynn, Mass.
The grandfather, Alberto Salvi, came to the United States in the early 1900s and was a famous harpist. He emigrated from a small town outside of Venice.
Strong supporter of his Alma Mater, Notre Dame, baseball magnet (so to speak), prominent lawyer and community leader, Patrick A. Salvi is truly a renaissance man and one of the best our community has to offer.
