Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP has been ranked in the 2020 U.S. News - Best Lawyers® "Best Law Firms" list nationally in three practice areas and regionally in ten practice areas for our professional excellence, quality of legal practice, and breadth of legal expertise.

RSHC Partner Shalem Massey will be a panelist at the October 24-25, 2019 ABA/TIPs program, “The Aviation Lawyer’s Operating Handbook: Learning to Litigate, Navigate, and Communicate,” to be held in Washington, DC. Shalem and his co-presenters will discuss the tripartite relationship, the issues which arise, and best practices at their session, “Keeping Formation: Navigating the Relationship of Insured, Insurer, and Outside Counsel.”

Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila has been named by corporate counsel to the Honor Roll of BTI Consulting Group’s 10th annual BTI Litigation Outlook 2020 as a firm they turn to for their most pressing litigation needs. The firm has been recognized in the areas of Complex Commercial Litigation and Everyday Commercial Litigation.

RSHC Partner Jake Kahn will serve as Conference Co-Chair and a Speaker at the 11th Annual Conference on Futures and Derivatives on October 17, 2019, hosted at Chicago-Kent College of Law. Jake will present on the topic: “At the Intersection of Antitrust and Derivatives Law.”

RSHC is proud to announce that RSHC Partner Greg Curtner has again been selected a 2019 Michigan Super Lawyer. He has been a Top Rated Antitrust Litigator for 14 consecutive years who embodies excellence in his practice of law. No more than five percent of the lawyers in Michigan are selected by Super Lawyers for this high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. Annual selections are made using a patented multiphase process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, an independent research evaluation of candidates, and peer reviews by practice area.

RSHC is pleased to announce that RSHC Partner Matt Fischer has been awarded the highest overall rating by his peers and named Best Lawyers’ 2020 “Lawyer of the Year” for Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions-Defendants in the Chicago area. This is the third time that Matt has been honored as Lawyer of the Year, having been recognized in 2018 and 2013 for this same honor.

Nine RSHC partners continue to be recognized by their peers for inclusion in the 2020 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America in nine areas of selection and in three geographic regions. The Best Lawyers list has been published for over three decades and is regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence.

Vault’s “2020 Best Midsize Law Firms to Work For” names RSHC tops several different categories. RSHC was named #1 in Best Midsize Law Firms for Diversity, and #1 in Best Midsize Law Firms for Pro Bono. RSHC was also named #14 in Best Midsize Law Firms for Technology and Innovation, #18 for Firm Culture, and #23 Overall.

Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP (RSHC) announced the hiring of two new partners, Jeffrey W. Morof and Shalem A. Massey. Jeffrey W. Morof has spent his entire career defending aerospace clients and the aviation insurance market in product liability and commercial litigation matters, including serving as national counsel for two large aerospace manufacturers. Shalem A. Massey is a litigator with experience handling high-stakes and “bet the company” matters for businesses and insurers in the aerospace and technology industries.

RSHC is working to change the face of the legal profession, literally, and figuratively. We are pleased to announce that RSHC has been named a Top Five firm for minority lawyers AND a Top Ten firm for minority equity partners.

Ron Safer and Eli Litoff are proud to be part of the team that secured Bernard Williams’ release from Cook County Jail on Friday. In February, the Court of Appeals vacated Mr. Williams’ murder conviction and granted a new trial, but a Cook County Judge ordered that Mr. Williams be held without bail until his new trial was completed.

Congratulations to Drahcir Smith and the entire 2019-2020 Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago, Inc. (BWLA) Board of Directors and Scholarship Fund Board, who were installed on June 3. The group pledged their renewed commitment to making an “impact” on the legal profession, as well as the general community-at-large, and changing so many lives.

RSHC is proud to sponsor and have RSHC Partners, Meghan McMeel and Kate Stimeling, presenting at The Women, Diversity & Change Summit programs in Chicago (June 6) and San Francisco (June 11). Meghan will be speaking at the June 6 program on strategies for strategically fostering effective sponsors for women in law to progress their careers. Kate will be presenting on the June 11 San Francisco panel, “Sponsors, Influencers & Career Engineering.” The conference will explore and inspire lasting change for women and minorities in the legal profession.

A Dream Became Reality—Project Chimps celebrates a 5-year milestone! Bruce Wagman, Co-Founder, President and RSHC animal protection lawyer, recalls the journey. Currently 59 chimpanzees with almost 150 more to join them are thriving at the 236-acre Project Chimps sanctuary in the Blue Ridge Mountains of north Georgia.

Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila is extremely proud of our three partners recognized as top Gen X practitioners in Chicago by Crain’s Chicago Business. Joseph McCoy, Kelly Warner, and Josh Lee serve in senior leadership roles at the firm as well as actively serve on boards of professional associations and organizations giving back to their profession and community.

RSHC is proud to announce that RSHC Employment Counsel Drahcir Marie Smith has been elected the 2019-2020 Corresponding Secretary for the Black Women Lawyers' Association of Greater Chicago, Inc. (BWLA). Drahcir served as a BWLA Board Member at Large for the 2018-2019 term. Congratulations to all of the new BWLA Officers and Board members!

Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), the ranking member and chairman, respectively, of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, have released a proposed framework for an overhaul of the statutory definition of patent-eligible subject matter. A parallel version has also been released in the House of Representatives by Reps. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), and Steve Strivers (R-Ohio).

Do corporate gender diversity hiring quotas work? Are they legal? What will the long-term impact be for women and the companies that they work for? California enacted a groundbreaking—and controversial—law requiring that publicly held corporations headquartered there add female directors to their governing boards. This law will impact major corporations like Apple, Facebook, and Tesla, and likely far beyond.

Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila proudly announces that Partner Steve Hankins has been selected as a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America (LCA). The LCA is an invitation-only trial lawyer honorary society which recognizes excellence and accomplishments in litigation and trial work, along with ethical reputation. Steve proudly joins Joe Cancila in receiving this exclusive recognition. He will be inducted at the LCA Spring Conference in Santa Barbara, California.

RSHC Managing Partner Patricia Brown Holmes was the special guest on the March 15 Rare & Scratchy Rock ‘N Roll retrospective podcast hosted by Radio Dave Milberg featuring 30 Feminist Hit Singles Before Their Time between the 1950’s and 1990’s. The history and snippets of thirty (30) hit songs about female empowerment by Aretha Franklin (Respect), Helen Reddy (I am Woman), Gloria Gaynor (I Will Survive), and more were remembered for their strong and positive impact.