COUNSEL CHAIRMEN Illinois courts answer to these princes of the prairie. A dozen or so lawyers control Trial Lawyers, Inc.’s Illinois operations. These attorneys—the “leadership team” for Illinois’ litigation industry—make millions off the state’s magic jurisdictions.   Philip Corboy Chairman, Cook County For over 50 years, Corboy has led the personal-injury bar in Illinois, and his junior partner, Tom Demetrio, scored the state’s largest personal-injury award sustained on appeal.[178] TIME LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES/MICHAEL L. ABRAMSON   Bob Clifford President, Cook County The leader of Illinois’ most profitable plaintiffs’ firm, Clifford has pulled in two med-mal awards at or above $16 million in the last two years alone.[179] AP/MARK CORNELISON   Randy Bono Chairman, Madison County The asbestos tort king has assumed the Madison County leadership since returning from the bench, scoring a $250 million verdict against U.S. Steel.[180] AP/CHARLES REX ARBOGAST   John Simmons President, Asbestos Madison County is Asbestos Central, and Simmons, in partnership with Bono, leads the way: their firm filed 375 of the county’s 457 mesothelioma cases in 2003.[181] AP/CHUCK NOVARAS   Brad Lakin President, Class Actions Madison County’s most frequent class action filer uses "cookie cutter" lawsuits that even contain the same typographical errors.[182] ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH/DAVID CARON   Stephen Tillery President, Tobacco Another of the litigation-industry leaders east of St. Louis, Tillery won a landmark $10.1 billion verdict against Philip Morris for marketing light cigarettes, which was overturned on appeal.[183] AP/CHARLES REX ARBOGAST   Rex Carr Chairman, St. Clair County The longtime litigator made headlines in 2004 when he represented former judge Gordon Maag, after an electoral defeat, in a $110 million libel suit against his political opponents.[184] AP/DERIk HOLTMANN   Bruce Cook President, St. Clair County St. Clair County’s most politically influential lawyer, Cook is also the former law partner of Ann Callis—daughter of local tort powerhouse Lance Callis and now the chief judge of Madison County.[185] AP/DERIK HOLTMANN   <<previous section | next section>> 178. See Corboy & Demetrio, Philip H. Corboy, http://www.corboydemetrio.com/practice/attorneys/corboy.cfm (last visited Oct. 5, 2006); Corboy & Demetrio, Thomas A. Demetrio, http://www.corboydemetrio.com/practice/attorneys/tdemetrio.cfm (last visited Oct. 5, 2006). 179. See Clifford Law Offices, supra note 31; Clifford Law Offices, Our Success Record, http://www.cliffordlaw.com/success (last visited Oct. 5, 2006). 180. See Boynton, supra note 123. 181. See Hampel, supra note 118. 182. See Schmidt, supra note 92. 183. See Price v. Phillip Morris, Inc., No. 96236, 2005 Ill. LEXIS 2071 (Ill. 2005). 184. See Knef, supra note 177. 185. See Ann Knef, Ann Callis Elected Chief Judge in Madison County, MaiIson County Rec., Mar. 29, 2006.