Michael Irving Leonard

Mike is a nationally recognized “go to” trial lawyer. He has successfully tried to verdict
dozens of cases in the federal and state courts. He is only presently practicing attorney to have attained seven  complete not guilty jury verdicts in favor of his clients in federal criminal prosecutions brought by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois. This includes the most recent instance, in January 2023, where Mike obtained a not guilty jury verdict in favor of his client, a former executive of a durable medical equipment company, in a federal health care fraud case. Mike also obtained one of the very few federal criminal not guilty jury verdicts in the Northern District in 2020.  Mike’s results in civil jury and bench trials have been equally impressive, in the Illinois state courts, including in Cook, Kane, DuPage and Lake counties, as well as
in the federal courts ranging from Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and Virginia. Mike’s clients have prevailed before juries in those jurisdictions in cases involving employment discrimination, employment retaliation/whistleblowing, securities fraud, civil rights violations, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and a variety of other
commercial claims. He also also argued numerous civil and criminal appeals, including before the Seventh Court, Sixth Court, the Illinois Appellate Courts, the California Appellate Court, and the Idaho Supreme Court. Mike is an Adjunct Professor of trial practice at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, and he regularly lectures on the art and science of trial practice. Mike is also an Arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”).

University of Iowa – BA 1988.

Loyola University School of Law – JD 1991.