Julie L. Pustilnik

Julie Levinson Pustilnik is a Partner at TPMB and a Trial Attorney who has dedicated her career to fighting for victims of catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death. Julie’s practice areas include nursing home abuse and neglect, medical negligence, construction negligence, premises liability, auto liability, and product liability. Julie has secured impressive multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements for her clients and their families.

Julie is frequently and consecutively recognized by the legal community for her impressive advocacy. Julie recently received the Chicago-Kent College of Law 2021 Outstanding Young Alumni Award, honoring Julie for her significant contribution to the profession and the law school.

Julie is a Super Lawyers Rising Star (2016-2021), a distinction reserved for only the top 2.5% of attorneys in the state. Julie is also an Emerging Lawyer (2017-2021), recognizing her as one of the top 2% of young lawyers who has proven herself at an early point in her career. These honors reflect Julie’s excellent legal skills, hard work, and devotion to her clients.

Julie is a talented first-chair trial attorney. Recently, Julie secured a jury verdict of over $1.4 million dollars for a woman on her bicycle who was hit by a car door. Liability was strongly contested, but the jury ultimately found in the Plaintiff’s favor, resulting in an excess verdict and an award for Julie’s client of over eight times the insurance policy limits and the settlement offer. This success was due to Julie’s strategic legal positioning and zealous advocacy.

Julie’s other recent successes include a $2.5 million dollar jury verdict for a man involved in a disputed liability highway crash; a $3 million dollar medical negligence settlement during trial for the family of a man who suffocated to death after his tracheostomy tube became dislodged; a $2.5 million dollar settlement for a gentlemen who sustained rib fractures and respiratory distress as a result of a collision; a $2.3 million dollar settlement on the eve of trial for a mother and daughter who sustained vertebral fractures in a collision; a record settlement for a woman who developed a pressure ulcer at a nursing home; and $7 million dollar settlement for a union pipefitter who sustained career ending knee injuries at an unsafe construction site.

Julie received a Jury Verdict Reporter Trial Lawyer Excellence Award for a record $67 million jury verdict for a man who suffered severe and debilitating burns in a grain bin explosion while doing his job. Julie strives to help others achieve the security they lose when suffering from injury.

Julie currently serves as the President of the Chicago-Kent College of Law Young Alumni Council. Julie is also the Director of TPMB’s Law Clerk program and the Chair of the TPMB Lawyer-to-Lawyer Mentorship and Development program.

Results

A sample of recent verdicts and settlements include:

• $67.2 million record jury verdict including punitive damages on behalf of a laborer who was injured while working on a grain bin that exploded causing severe burn injuries.
• $7,000,000.00 settlement for a union pipefitter who sustained career-ending knee injuries at an unsafe construction site.
• $6,000,000.00 settlement for a woman who suffered a brain infarction and permanent disability after hospital staff administered morphine through a permacath causing air to enter her venous system.
• $4,800,000.00 settlement for 3 passengers in a collision, where the driver sustained ankle, wrist, and tibial plateau fractures, one passenger underwent fusion surgery, and the other passenger sustained fractures to her humerus, shoulder and lumbar spine.
• $3,000,000.00 policy limit settlement for a young girl severely burned in a propane gas explosion at her family’s vacation cabin after a company installed a new propane tank on the property.
• $3,000,000.00 settlement obtained during a jury trial for the family a 70-year-old hospital patient who suffocated to death after his tracheostomy tube became dislodged.
• $2,553,741.00 million dollar jury verdict for a 25-year-old who sustained traumatic injuries to his ankle and knee in a collision. The defense offered zero at trial.
• $2,500,000.00 settlement for a 78-year-old man who suffered rib fractures and respiratory distress as a result of a collision.
• $2,300,000.00 settlement for a mother and daughter who sustained vertebral fractures in a collision.
• $2,175,000.00 settlement for a woman who sustained a back injury in a motor vehicle collision.
• $1,808,075 jury verdict in medical negligence case for a 73-year-old man who developed an infection and died after undergoing an unnecessary TRUS biopsy of the prostate.
• $1,600,000.00 settlement in a product liability action for a woman whose arm was injured by an unreasonably dangerous machine.
• $1,564,374.00 settlement for the family of a man who was killed in a boat explosion;
• $1,482,000.00 jury verdict for a mom on her bicycle and who was hit by a car door and sustained pelvic injuries and dental trauma.
• $1,250,000.00 settlement for a woman who lost her baby in utero due to emergency room delays;
• $1,210,000.00 settlement for a woman who suffered a herniated disc requiring surgery after slipping on spilled soapy liquid.
• $1,027,500.00 settlement on behalf of the Estate of a 72 year old man who was injured, and later died, after falling from the front concrete steps at the home of an acquaintance.
• $1,185,000.00 million settlement for a 32-year-old mother who was struck by a bakery truck while crossing the street in a crosswalk in Chicago, sustaining back and hip injuries requiring surgery.
• $875,000 on behalf of the Estate of a premature baby who died at four days of life as a result of complications from intubation.
• $837,500.00 settlement for an 85-year-old woman who admitted herself into a nursing home for rehabilitation following a back surgery. The nursing home failed to take proper care of her surgical wound and she developed a stage 4 pressure ulcer.
• $800,000.00 settlement for an ironworker who injured his knee after tripping on an electrical conduit on a construction jobsite.
• $600,000.00 settlement for a woman who sustained neck and back injuries in an automobile collision.
• $490,000.00 settlement for a union pipefitter whose foot was pinned while attempting to remove a valve from an actuator.
• $450,000.00 settlement for a woman with MS who developed a pressure ulcer while a resident at a nursing home.
• $455,000.00 settlement for a woman who sustained a breast hematoma and concussion in a collision;
• $400,000.00 settlement for an ironworker who injured his shoulder while slipping in muddy ground conditions on a construction jobsite.
• $400,000.00 settlement for a woman who sustained a shoulder injury and exacerbation of pre-existing knee and ankle problems when she slipped on water outside the elevator at a hotel that had accumulated from guests who had tracked it there from the pool.
• $400,000.00 settlement for a temp agency employee working at a cookie factory who suffered a fractured elbow when her arm was pulled into the conveyor belt rollers of a machine.
• $380,000.00 settlement for a 92-year-old victim of nursing home abuse and neglect.
• $375,000.00 settlement for a doctoral student who suffered a zygomatic fracture and concussion when she was hit by a van while riding her bicycle.
• $300,000.00 policy limits settlement for a 25-year-old woman who was bitten by a dog.
• $225,000.00 settlement for 71-year-old man with Alzheimer’s, dementia and Parkinson’s disease who suffered a fall at a nursing home.
• $200,000.00 settlement for a woman who fell at a nursing home.