Managing Partner
Location: Wheaton, Illinois
Phone: 630-690-2800
Fax: 630-690-2853
Email: E-mail Me
LinkedIn Profile
James L. DeAno attended John Marshall Law School where he served on the Law Review and graduated with high honors in 1981. He worked for the Illinois Supreme Court research department from 1982 until 1984 when he joined the insurance defense firm of O'Reilly & Cunningham which by 1997 evolved into the firm of Norton Mancini Weiler & DeAno. In June of 2006 he joined with Laura Scarry to create DeAno & Scarry, a law firm which specializes in insurance defense, legal malpractice and municipal defense, primarily in DuPage and Kane Counties and the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois. Mr. DeAno has more than twenty years experience representing defendants in civil litigation in cases before the United States Supreme Court, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the Illinois Supreme and Appellate Courts as well as federal and Illinois trial courts.
His articles have been published in the Illinois Bar Journal and the Journal of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel and in 2005 he was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to the Illinois Civil Jury Instructions Committee. He became a certified arbitrator in 1995 and continues to serve as an arbitrator in DuPage County . He served four terms as General Counsel of the DuPage County Bar Association and was a member of its Judiciary Committee from 1991 to 1994. He currently serves on the Amicus Committee of the Illinois Defense Counsel and is a former faculty member of the Chicago Kent College of Law annual conference on Section 1983 Civil Rights Litigation. He has lectured and instructed attorneys and insurance representatives on topics including trial practice, discovery and damages.
Areas of Practice
- Public Entity and Official Liability
- Police Misconduct
- Legal Malpractice
- Arbitration
- Insurance Defense
Litigation Percentage
- 100% of Practice Devoted to Litigation
Bar Admissions
- Illinois, 1981
- U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois, 1981
- U.S. Court of Appeals 7th Circuit, 1987
- U.S. Supreme Court, 1999
Education
- John Marshall Law School, Chicago, Illinois
J.D. - 1981
Honors: With Distinction - Law Review: John Marshall Law Review, 1978 - 1980
Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois
B.S. - 1978
Honors: With Honors
Major: Political Science
Major: Economics
Published Works
Governmental Immunities for Recreational Injuries, 82 Ill.B.J. 28, 28-29, 1994
The "Class of One" Equal Protection Claim, Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel's IDC Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2000
Representative Cases
Village of Willowbrook v. Olech, 528 U.S. 562, 120 S.Ct. 1073, 145 L.Ed.2d (U.S. Supreme Court 2000)
Dunn v. City of Elgin, 347 F.3d 641, C.A.7 (Ill.) (7th Circuit Court of Appeals 2003)
Representative Clients
- Municipal Corporations
- Police Officers
- Public Officials
- Attorneys
Classes/Seminars
- Police Liability Trial Practice, Intergovernmental Risk Management Agency, 2001 - 2004
- Section 1983 Seminar, Chicago Kent College of Law, 2002 - 2003
Professional Associations and Memberships
- Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Civil Jury Instructions, Since 2012 Chairman 2014
- Illinois Bar Association, Member, 1981 - Present
- DuPage County Bar Association, Member, 1984 - Present
Past Employment Positions
- Illinois Supreme Court, Staff Attorney, 1982 - 1984
- Norton Mancini Weller & Deano, Partner, 1984 - 2006
