SUSAN GUNTY graduated from Loyola University School of Law, where she received the Loyola Law School Service and Leadership Award. She also received her Bachelors Degree and Masters Degree in Philosophy from Loyola University.
While in law school, Ms. Gunty was an editor and contributing writer for the Women's Law Reporter. She authored several additional articles which have appeared in the Journal of the American Bar Association Tort and Practice Section and the Illinois State Bar Association Journal.
In 1980, Ms. Gunty became associated with the Law Office of John B. Grogan, Ltd., defending serious personal injury cases. She has extensive experience in all phases of litigation and has specialized in cases involving toxic tort, strict product liability, general negligence, mold, repetitive trauma as well as asbestos, silica and other mineral, chemical and toxic exposure cases. After Mr. Grogan became an Illinois judge in 1989, Ms. Gunty became associated with another mid-size Chicago defense firm, where she was named partner within six months. In 1991, she left to form Gunty & McCarthy.
Ms. Gunty has been heavily involved in the defense of asbestos litigation for over thirty years and was an original member of the "Chicago Asbestos Defense Group" which was used as a prototype for concerted defense efforts in other jurisdictions. The defense group was involved in both personal injury and property damage lawsuits, many of which resulted in precedential rulings by the Illinois Appellate and Supreme Courts. She has developed a detailed knowledge of the various asbestos-related diseases and their defenses based on medical and scientific literature.
Ms. Gunty is experienced both as a trial and appellate attorney. In 1994, Ms. Gunty obtained a defense verdict following a two month trial of a mesothelioma death case. The jury awarded the plaintiff $3.5 million from the remaining defendant. Ms. Gunty obtained another defense verdict in a case several years later where the jury awarded $13.5 million from a second co-defendant to a worker diagnosed with mesothelioma in Madison County, Illinois. Most recently she has tried cases in Cook and St. Clair County, obtaining two more defense verdicts in mesothelioma death cases and one most recent mesothelioma death case which resulted in a hung jury. There were eight jurors in favor of the defense and at least some of the eight were unwilling to award the widow any damages whatsoever. Early in her career, she was involved in the development and drafting of Standing Case Management Orders as well as amendments thereto in the three major Illinois court jurisdictions where most asbestos cases are filed and litigated. Early in her career, she was involved in the development and drafting of Standing Case Management Orders governing all asbestos litigation filed in at least three major Illinois court jurisdictions where most asbestos cases are filed and litigated, and has continued to contribute to many of the subsequent amendments made to these orders. She is currently representing approximately 60 defendants in pending or recently pending Madison County and Cook County, Illinois asbestos litigation and practices in St. Louis, Missouri as well.
Ms. Gunty has been appointed as National Coordinating Counsel for several asbestos defendants involved in nationwide asbestos litigation. She is a member of the bar for the States of Illinois, Indiana and Missouri as well as numerous federal courts in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. She is a member of the Federal Trial Bar and is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. She belongs to the Illinois State Bar Association, the Defense Research Institute, the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel and the Chicago Bar Association. Ms. Gunty has presented defense seminars for such associations as Mealey's News and Litigation Reports, The Chicago Law Bulletin, DePaul Law School, and others on toxic tort cases involving AIDS tainted blood, asbestos lawsuits and defenses, expert witnesses under Daubert, trial litigation strategy and emerging toxic torts.
