Lance D. Northcutt joined Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. in 2020 as a Partner and focuses his practice on cases concerning catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, civil rights, and mass torts.
Throughout his time at the firm, he has recovered more than $500 million on behalf of his deserving clients.
Mr. Northcutt was one of the lead attorneys in a landmark $363 million jury toxic tort case where a woman developed breast cancer from exposure to ethylene oxide emissions from a suburban medical device sterilization plant. That record-setting trial victory – the largest jury verdict awarded to an individual plaintiff in Illinois history at the time of the trial – was followed by Mr. Northcutt’s role as one of the lead negotiators of a global settlement on behalf of more than 800 other victims who had sued the parent company that owned the sterilization plant.
At Salvi Schostok and Pritchard P.C., Mr. Northcutt has secured other record recoveries on behalf of catastrophically injured clients, including a $45 million settlement for a young man who sustained a major traumatic brain injury following a vehicle pursuit and a $20 million recovery for a woman struck by a CTA bus.
A former Cook County prosecutor and law enforcement officer, Mr. Northcutt draws upon his diverse background in complex litigation and legal knowledge to deliver results in his personal injury practice. He has tried hundreds of cases to verdict before judges and juries and has represented clients on appeal and before the Illinois Supreme Court on a wide range of matters, including large-scale investigations and the representation of lawyers and judges before regulatory bodies. At the state and federal level, Mr. Northcutt’s record of achievement has involved taking on the most challenging cases that require the ability to navigate different areas of the law to deliver a winning litigation strategy, including two unprecedented victories in the Illinois Supreme Court involving emergency supervisory relief.
As a legal educator, Mr. Northcutt has 20 years of experience teaching trial advocacy, evidence, and advocacy-related legal ethics in the United States and Ireland. As an Adjunct Professor of Law, Mr. Northcutt served as the Assistant Director of Advocacy at The John Marshall Law School and now teaches at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law where he leads Kent’s International Comparative Advocacy Program in Dublin, Ireland in cooperation with The Honorable Society of King’s Inns, the Bar Council of Ireland and the Irish Supreme Court. In 2013, he was named both Adjunct Professor of the Year and Outstanding Trial Team Coach at Chicago-Kent.
As a former faculty member of the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education, Mr. Northcutt has taught courses to newly admitted lawyers on procedural and substantive law. He has been a moderator, panelist and featured speaker in multiple seminars before the bench and bar in the U.S. and Ireland and is frequently called upon by national media outlets to comment on noteworthy cases. In 2022, Mr. Northcutt was appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Professional Responsibility, which advises and makes recommendations on matters relating to legal ethics and professional responsibility. From 2015 – 2021, Mr. Northcutt served as a Commissioner on the Illinois Supreme Court’s Commission on Professionalism.
Mr. Northcutt’s published works include an editorial that earned him a national award from the American Bar Association and others which have appeared in the Chicago Bar Association Journal and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. Two articles, “First, Do No Harm” and “Illinois Evidence: A Code at Long Last,” were featured in the Illinois Trial Lawyers’ Journal.
A Chicago native, Mr. Northcutt graduated from The John Marshall Law School where he was a member of The John Marshall Law Review, a Morrissey Scholar, Editor-in-Chief of two publications and winner of the Hertzog Academic Scholarship and the Kissane Award for Public Service.
In addition to his work at the firm and in academia, Mr. Northcutt serves on the Board of Directors for the International Institute for Animal Law and volunteers for FSMA (Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy).
Additional credentials and distinctions include membership in the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, Illinois State Bar Association, American Association for Justice, American Bar Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.
Noteworthy Results
• $363,000,000 toxic tort jury verdict *Illinois record*
• $45,000,000 personal injury settlement *Illinois record*
• $20,000,000 personal injury – pedestrian accident settlement *Illinois record*
• $15,750,000 personal injury settlement
• $12,000,000 wrongful death – auto accident settlement
• $8,975,000 personal injury settlement
• $8,400,000 personal injury settlement
• $4,328,000 personal injury settlement
Awards and Honors
• Sterigenics trial team honored with Trial Lawyer Excellence Award
• Law Bulletin Media “Trial Lawyer Excellence Award” (2023)
• Best Lawyers: Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs (2022 – Present)
• Super Lawyers “Illinois Super Lawyers” (2021 – Present)
• Law Bulletin Media “Leading Lawyers” (2017 – Present)
