Emmett McCarthy was born on the south side of Chicago and attended Mt. Carmel High School. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and received his Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law. While at DePaul, Emmett received the CALI Award for Legal Ethics and was an Editor for the DePaul Environmental Law Digest. He has spoken at seminars for the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, the Chicago Bar Association, and the National Tax Lien Association (NTLA). He is past Chair of the Real Estate Taxation Committee and the Tax Sale and Tax Deed Subcommittee of the Chicago Bar Association and has also served as Legislative Liaison for those committees. Emmett joined the firm in 2002 and has been a partner since 2007. He has been selected as a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers.

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Emmett’s primary practice areas are real estate tax sales and tax deeds, real estate tax sale certificate assignments, real estate tax redemption, indemnity fund claims, retroactive and alternative real estate tax relief, real estate tax exemptions, sheriff levy sales; medical malpractice and personal injury claims; business and real estate transactions and other areas of civil litigation. He has handled numerous Cook County Indemnity Fund cases involving residential, income, commercial and industrial properties and obtained judgments exceeding $1 million for owners, contract purchasers, heirs, and lien holders, including mortgage companies. Per Public Act 97-557 and Section 21-305 of the Property Tax Code, a petition for indemnity must be filed within 10 years after the date the tax deed was issued.

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Some of Emmett’s noteworthy cases include one that resulted in a record-breaking $51 million verdict for a client who was severely injured in an automobile collision. The verdict was the highest Illinois compensatory verdict for personal injury. He also worked on a case that resulted in a record-high verdict of $12,508,098 for the family of a quadriplegic child who drowned in a bathtub after being left unattended by her home health care nurse. The verdict was an Illinois high for the death of a minor and was also a record high for death of a severely disabled individual.

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Emmett had a jury trial involving a breach of contract and fraud claim between two corporations regarding the sale of newspaper publications. The plaintiff pierced the defendant’s “corporate veil” and obtained a jury verdict in the amount of $580,000.00. The plaintiff also won a motion to award pre-judgment interest of almost $85,000.00. The judgment was affirmed on appeal in its entirety. The plaintiff then moved to collect on the judgment through a citation to discover assets and was forced to file a complaint to set aside a fraudulent transfer of the defendant’s largest tangible asset, the real estate of its president. The transfer was set aside and then the plaintiff pursued a sheriff’s levy sale against the real estate. Shortly before the levy sale, the defendant paid the judgment, plus post-judgment interest and costs, in full.

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Please contact Emmett if you are interested in having him speak at a meeting or seminar for your community, legal, trade or similar organization.