Episode Details

This week, your hosts Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey interview Joseph Power, Jr. and Larry Rogers, Jr. of Powers Rogers, LLP (https://www.claggettlaw.com/)

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Episode Details:

Accomplished Chicago trial lawyers Joseph Power, Jr. and Larry Rogers, Jr. of Powers Rogers, LLP explain how they secured justice for the families of two attorneys and a law office secretary who were shot by a disgruntled client who gained unauthorized access to the office due to the failure of building security officers to follow established safety procedures. On December 8, 2006, Joseph Jackson entered a 41-floor professional building at 500 West Madison Street in Chicago, held Allied Barton Security Services officer Robert Brown at gunpoint and demanded to be taken to the 38th floor, where patent lawyer Michael McKenna's office was located. A client of Michael McKenna and an inventor seeking a patent, Joseph Jackson mistakenly thought Michael McKenna had sold his idea and owed him money. Supervising security officer Sidney Chambers knew that Joseph Jackson had been loitering in the building for hours and had suspiciously interacted with officer Robert Brown, but failed to take action. Robert Brown did not follow safety protocol, utilize officer codes to alert his supervising officer to the situation or employ restraint techniques designed to defuse the situation. Instead, he tried to flee the scene and save himself when Joseph Jackson began firing his gun in the law office, fatally shooting Michael McKenna and Allen Hoover and wounding office secretary Ruth Lieb. In 2017, a Cook County, Illinois jury delivered a verdict against Allied Barton Security Services, Sidney Chambers and Joseph Jackson, assigning 60 percent of the responsibility to the deceased Joseph Jackson and 40 percent to Allied Barton in a $30,650,000 verdict. 

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Guest Bios:

Joseph Power Jr.

Joseph A. Power, Jr. is the founding partner of the Power, Rogers, LLP law firm in Chicago, and a prominent trial lawyer focusing on cases involving medical malpractice, trucking collisions, wrongful death, product liability and catastrophic personal injuries.

Power received his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1974 and his Juris Doctor degree from Loyola University of Chicago in 1977.  Power was named as partner in 1984 and the firm became Hayes & Power.  In 1993, the firm became Power, Rogers & Smith, and has recently become Power Rogers, LLP.

At the age of 28, Power became the youngest lawyer in the country to obtain a jury verdict in excess of $1 million for his client.  Power was the lead attorney in a trucking case which led to seventy-six criminal convictions, including the former governor of Illinois in the “licenses for bribes” scandal, which triggered the retesting of over 2000 truck drivers has obtained over 200 verdicts and settlements over $1,000,000.  He has the largest jury verdict in Illinois history for a contested liability personal injury case, and in addition, has the largest medical malpractice jury verdict in Illinois history.  In the last two years alone, he has been to verdict in six cases, all leading to seven and eight million-dollar recoveries.

As a leader among personal injury lawyers, Power has been listed in the Harvard Law graduates Naifeh and Smith book, The Best Lawyers in America, every year since 1987. The National Law Journal recognized him as one of the top ten litigators in the United States and he has been listed in Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Law.  

Additionally, Power h