David C. Wise

Founding partner of Wise Law Offices LLC, David C. Wise has established himself as one of Illinois’ top plaintiff attorneys, with over 100 verdicts and settlements exceeding $1 million each. Since founding the firm in 2002, Mr. Wise has personally achieved verdicts and settlements that collectively now exceed $350 million. In 2021, he set the record for the highest pre-trial settlement with disputed liability in Illinois history when he secured $90 million for a worker catastrophically injured on the job. He has also set the record in McLean County, Illinois ($7.25 Million) and Crawford County, Illinois ($1.5 Million) for the highest personal injury settlements in each county’s history. Mr. Wise has successfully argued in front of Illinois State courts, the Illinois Appellate Courts, the Illinois Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7^th Circuit, and numerous federal courts throughout Illinois and the country.

Mr. Wise is listed as a Top 100 Trial Lawyer by the National Trial Lawyers Association, awarded to the top 5% of Illinois lawyers, and has been selected as a Leading Lawyer and Super Lawyer every year since the distinctions were first awarded. He is also rated AV in the Martindale-Hubbell rating system – the highest professional distinction available. Mr. Wise was recognized as one of the “40 Illinois Attorneys Under Forty To Watch” by Chicago Lawyer in 2001 when he was only 34 years old, a recognition based upon review and recommendations of judges, bar leaders, and other lawyers.

In over three decades of practice, Mr. Wise has successfully tried and settled cases in all areas of personal injury against America’s biggest companies, insurance carriers, manufacturers, hospitals, and employers. His areas of practice include, but are not limited to, product liability, construction site accidents, workplace accidents, medical malpractice, plane crashes, crane accidents, bridge collapses, gas explosions, railroad accidents, truck accidents, motor vehicle accidents, road design cases, electrocution cases, premises liability, pedestrian and cyclist accidents, motorcycle accidents, nursing home negligence and abuse, sexual abuse and assault, and general negligence.

Other examples of Mr. Wise’s notable verdicts and settlements include:

• $35 Million for a newborn who sustained severe brain damage with spastic quadriplegia and cerebral palsy due to failure to timely perform a C-section. (Medical Malpractice, Birth Injuries)
• $11.2 Million for a man who suffered a traumatic brain injury when a ladder he was on collapsed. Following a not-guilty verdict rendered while plaintiff was represented by another firm, which left plaintiff with nothing, Mr. Wise took over the case and appealed the verdict to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7^th Mr. Wise won a new trial for plaintiff and successfully tried the case to verdict in plaintiff’s favor. (Product Liability, Traumatic Brain Injuries)
• $10 Million for the family of a man killed by a weapon stolen from defendant’s premises. (Wrongful Death; Premises Liability; Assault)
• $8.8 Million for a 50-year-old ironworker who suffered an ankle injury when improperly stored conduit piping fell on him at a worksite. Plaintiff’s injury progressed to complex regional pain syndrome with debilitating pain, which required implantation of a spinal cord stimulator. (Workplace Accidents; Construction Negligence)
• $7.25 Million for a man nearly 70 years of age whose legs were crushed and subsequently amputated due to an auto double rear-ending accident on a bridge in central Illinois where he got out of his car on the bridge to inspect damage and then got hit by a following vehicle. (Auto Accidents)
• $5.6 Million for a motorcyclist hit by a car in a road construction zone due to improper construction zone set-up. (Motorcycle Accidents; Construction Negligence)
• $5.5 Million for a pedestrian hit by a semi-tractor trailer while crossing the street suffering leg injury, fractured pelvis, and soft tissue damage. (Truck Accidents)
• $5.2 Million for the family of a worker crushed to death when a gantry crane at a railroad yard collapsed due to a turntable bearing failure secondary to improper maintenance. (Construction Negligence; Wrongful Death)
• $5 Million for the family of a mother and son killed when their newly built house in Downers Grove exploded as the result of improper installation of a natural gas line and appliances. (Construction Negligence; Wrongful Death)
• $5 Million for a man who was using an inversion table when a spring-loaded pin failed, causing him to fall head-first to the floor and sustain injuries that left him paralyzed below the shoulders. (Product Liability; Traumatic Brain Injuries)
• $5 Million for an electrician who was performing work in Bridgeview when his unsecured ladder slid off the wall causing him to fall 12-15 feet and sustain wrist and ankle fractures requiring fusions. (Workplace Accidents)
• $5 Million for a roofer who fell off a roof and sustained traumatic brain injury and partial paralysis. (Workplace Accidents; Traumatic Brain Injuries)
• $4.75 Million for the family of a 37-year-old machine operator crushed to death and killed instantly at his place of employment when he stepped between a cycling stone cutting machine and a building column. (Workplace Accidents; Wrongful Death)
• $4.5 Million for an electrician who slipped and fell on wet PVC roof while performing work duties and sustained a hamstring injury requiring surgery. (Workplace Accidents)
• $4.2 Million for a union pipefitter who stepped off an insufficiently marked edge of a platform sustaining a knee injury. (Construction Negligence; Workplace Accidents)
• $4 Million for the family of a 69-year-old woman who was struck and killed by a van driven by a School District employee while she was walking for exercise. (Pedestrian Accidents; Wrongful Death)
• $4 Million for a man who suffered paralysis below the waist after undergoing a thoracic discectomy to address a thoracic disc herniation. (Medical Malpractice)
• $3.8 Million for a 33-year-old union ironworker who was working on a flyover ramp under construction when it suddenly collapsed, resulting in orthopedic and vascular damage to his right arm and PTSD. (Construction Negligence; Workplace Accidents)
• $3.7 Million for a union carpenter using a shoring product on a Chicago jobsite that failed resulting in two herniated cervical discs. (Product Liability; Workplace Accidents)
• $3.55 Million for a union ironworker who slipped and fell on snow-covered stairs at a construction site and suffered a sprained left ankle which worsened to CRPS and required implantation of a spinal cord stimulator. (Workplace Accidents; Slip and Fall Accidents)
• $3.5 Million for the mother of a baby who sustained a hypoxic injury during C-section delivery and died. (Medical Malpractice; Wrongful Death; Birth Injuries)
• $3.25 Million for the adult children of a motorcyclist killed when a driver made an improper left turn in front of him. (Auto Accidents)
• $3.1 Million for the siblings and parents of an unmarried motorcyclist struck and killed while riding his motorcycle in an improperly set up road construction zone. (Motorcycle Accidents; Construction Negligence)
• $3 Million for a pedestrian who suffered a vascular lower leg injury when struck by an off-tracking truck turning a corner. (Pedestrian Accidents; Trucking Accidents)
• $3 Million for a man aged 63 with chronic vascular disease for improper treatment that led to a partial below-the-knee amputation. (Medical Malpractice)
• $3 Million for the family of a 59-year-old mechanic crushed to death when, while working under a trailer at his place of employment, a co-worker accidently cut into a hydraulic line on the 40-year-old trailer they were working on. (Product Liability; Workplace Accidents; Wrongful Death)
• $2.75 Million for the family of an unmarried man aged 30 with no children crushed to death at work when a piece of improperly maintained equipment fell on him. (Product Liability; Workplace Accidents; Wrongful Death)

Mr. Wise is proud to have successfully represented Illinois tradesmen and women in the following trades and unions, among others:

• Local 1 Ironworkers
• Local 1 Boilermakers
• Local 63 Ironworkers
• Local 150 Operating Engineers
• Local 13 Carpenters
• Local 54 Carpenters
• Local 363 Carpenters
• Local 17 Pipe Insulators
• Local 134 Electricians
• Local 2 Elevator mechanics
• Local 501 Plumbers
• Local 597 Pipefitters
• Local 2 Laborers
• Local 11 Roofers

Mr. Wise is a member of the American Bar Association, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association (ITLA), the Chicago Bar Association, and the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA). He has participated in many presentations on litigation, personal injury, and Illinois civil procedure related topics for the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education and the Illinois State Bar Association and has served as an adjunct professor of law at UIC Law (formerly John Marshall Law School).

When not at work advocating for his clients, Mr. Wise enjoys spending time with his wife and two children.