Robert L. Nora

Martindale-Hubbell: AV Rated.

Born in Chicago, Illinois; admitted to Illinois and U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Federal Trial Bar, and The Supreme Court of the United States of America.

Education: Northwestern University (Bachelor’s of Arts with honors); DePaul University (J.D.).

Robert L Nora is a nationally renowned trial attorney. The focus of his practice has been the litigation of actions involving medical negligence. He represents hospitals, medical corporations, physicians, nurses, therapists (physical, occupational and speech) and other allied health professionals.  Mr. Nora also has experience representing long-term care facilities, home health care providers and companies, assisted living facilities and veteran’s providers.  In addition, Mr. Nora handles pharmaceutical products liability, medical devices products liability and premises liability cases.  Mr. Nora has also developed a special expertise in practicing before the empowered governmental organizations.

Mr. Nora has tried a significant number of serious and catastrophic personal injury cases.  With one exception, Mr. Nora successfully obtained defense verdicts for his clients in every case.  In the sole instance in which a plaintiff’s verdict was rendered, the judgment was less than 1/20^th of the amount demanded of the jury, and less than one-half of the amount offered to resolve the case through settlement.  Not guilty verdicts have been returned in representative cases which have involved:

• Alleged failure to diagnose and treat colon cancer in 41-year-old man resulting in death.
• Alleged negligent manufacturing, marketing and sale of diatomaceous earth resulting in end-stage lung disease and/or death of nine factory workers who were exposed to the product.  (Re-trial of a case tried by another lawyer which initially resulted in a verdict for the Plaintiffs for $3.6 million.  On re-trial, a defense verdict was entered in favor of Mr. Nora’s client.)
• Alleged failure to diagnose and treat stomach cancer, resulting in death of a 51-year-old woman.
• Alleged failure to diagnose and treat respiratory distress resulting in death of 63-year-old woman.
• Alleged failure to properly perform percutaneous nephro-lithotripsy resulting in death of a 51-year-old woman.  Alleged failure to diagnose and treat compartment syndrome in 51-year-old woman resulting in bilateral leg surgery and disfigurement and disability.
• Alleged failure to diagnose and treat a ruptured coronary artery resulting in death of 19-year-old girl.
• Alleged failure to diagnose and treat corneal ulcer in 2-year-old child resulting in loss of vision.
• Alleged failure to provide informed consent regarding risks of knee surgery to Chicago Bear player resulting in career-ending disability.
• Alleged failure to advise mother of abnormal genetic screening test resulting in birth of Down’s Syndrome child.  Negligence was admitted and case tried on causation issue.  First reported “Wrongful Birth” case tried to verdict.
• Alleged failure to diagnose carcinoma on Pap smears resulting in hysterectomy and inability of 32-year-old woman to bear children. 
• Alleged failure to diagnose fetal distress resulting in brain injured child.
• Alleged failure to diagnose a spinal cord contusion resulting in spastic quadriplegia in 57-year-old male.
• Alleged failure to properly prescribe methadone resulting in death of a 36-year-old male.
• Alleged failure to diagnose a pulmonary embolism in a 51-year-old male resulting in his death.

The overwhelming majority of Mr. Nora’s cases have resulted in dismissal without any payment.  He has also successfully negotiated numerous favorable settlements in cases involving death and serious injury.   

Mr. Nora has been named “Top Twenty Tort Defense Lawyers in Chicago” by Chicago Lawyer and “Top Lawyers in Illinois” by Crain’s Chicago Business.  Also named “Illinois Super Lawyer” in Chicago Magazine and Illinois Super Lawyer Magazine (2005 to present), Member of the Leading Lawyers Network (2005 to present) and Charter Fellow of Litigation Counsel of America.  Trial results have repeatedly been reported by the Chicago Law Bulletin, Crain’s Chicago Business, National Law Journal and Verdicts, Settlements & Tactics.  He was one of six attorneys cited in “Excellence in Law, Time Magazine, 2013”.

Author:  “Dental Malpractice: Its Causes and Cures,” Quintessence International, Volume 17, Number 2/1986, reprinted Chicago Dental Society Review, July 1986; “Medical Affidavit Requirement Held Unconstitutional,” Risk Management Exchange Vol. 2, No. 2, Winter 1989; “AIDS Confidentiality Act and Hospital Liability,” Volume 11, No. 3, July-Sept., 1980; co-author “Institutional Liability – Modern Medical Malpractice Litigation,” Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education 1999; “Fact Discovery,” Medical Malpractice, Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2012; “Practice Management from a Legal Perspective,” Chicago Hospital News, April 2009.

Speeches:  Chicago Dental Society Midwinter Meeting, February, 1987; American Academy of General Dentistry, Annual Meeting, May 1988; Chicago Dental Society Midwinter Meeting, February, 1989; “Market Share Liability: The Art of the Possible,” September, 1989, videotaped for presentation by Chicago Bar Association and Continuing Legal Education Satellite Network; “Medical Malpractice from the Defense Perspective,” Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, December 7, 1991; Moderator, “Current Trends in Medical Malpractice,” Chicago Bar Association, June, 2993; “The Preparation and Trial of Medical Negligence Cases: The Impact of HB20,” Chicago Bar Association, June 14, 1995; Telemedicine, Chicago Hospital Risk Management Society, May, 1999; Current Topics in Medical Malpractice, Illinois Society of Pathology, November, 1999; Litigation Management, MMI Companies, February 5, 2000; “Fact Discovery,” Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education, April 2006; “Legal Preventative Care for the Medical Professional” (Ingalls Memorial Hospital) (2007); “Risk Management – Avoiding a lawsuit,” American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, Annual Meeting, March 2008; “Expert Witness Testimony,” American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, Annual Meeting, March 2008, April 2010 and February 2011.

Member:  Chicago, Illinois State, and American Bar Associations; Defense Research Institute; Professional Liability Underwriters Society; Trial Lawyers Club of Chicago, Healthcare Risk Management Society of Metropolitan Chicago, American Association of Hospital Attorneys and Society of Trial Lawyers (Board of Directors 2003-2005).