Daniel W. Sherman has served as a litigator and general legal counselor during his 23-year career as a lawyer in Illinois and Indiana. On September 1, 1998, Mr. Sherman started a solo practice, concentrating in general litigation, insurance coverage, estate, asset protection and elder law planning, and probate administration, as well as general business consulting. In the litigation field, he has represented individual clients concerning a wide variety of claims and disputes, including personal injury, insurance, real estate housing and general commercial/breach of contract matters.
Mr. Sherman began his legal career at Lord, Bissell & Brook in Chicago, where he worked on general commercial and insurance coverage matters, then served as Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago for five years practicing tort litigation. During his tenure with the Corporation Counsel's office, he represented the City in 22 personal injury trials, including 5 trial involving over $1,000,000 in exposure. In 1996, Mr. Sherman and Karen Reardon founded the Reardon & Sherman Law Firm, joining in partnership with Scott Golinkin. While at Reardon & Sherman, he specialized in insurance coverage and general litigation (with particular emphasis on insurance bad faith and employment discrimination cases).
Mr. Sherman is very involved in public service activities. He is an alumnus of the 1988 Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) Fellowship program. Mr. Sherman is a founder and past president of the Friends of PILI, which encouraged the pursuit pro bono work in the Chicago legal community. He also served as secretary of the board of directors for the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services (CVLS) and as a volunteer attorney with that organization, representing individual clients in family law, collection defense and social security administrative hearings, Mr. Sherman authored the "Tort Defense" chapter of the CVLS Attorney Manual. For his work as a PILI Fellow and his work as a volunteer and founder of the St. Procopius/Lord, Bissell & Brook Legal Aid Clinic, Mr. Sherman received the CVLS Distinguished Service Award in 1989. PILI recognized him with its Distinguished PILI Alumni Award in 1996.
From 1989 to 2000, Mr. Sherman acted as athletic director and basketball coach at St. Joseph School in Chicago, serving the inner-city Cabrini-Green community. In 1994, he was honored by the St. Joseph community with its Outreach Service Award and in 1998 by the St. Clement (Chicago) community with its Mother Cabrini Award. Mr. Sherman also recently completed a three-year term as a member of the St. Paul Catholic School Board in Valparaiso, Indiana.
Mr. Sherman is admitted to practice in Illinois and Indiana and the federal court for the Northern District of Illinois (including its trial bar) and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. He earned his law degree from Notre Dame Law School in 1988. Mr. Sherman received his B.A. degree from Aquinas College in 1980, where he graduated magna cum laude, was a two-time academic All-American baseball player and was awarded the Joseph Baker Award in 1980 as Aquinas' top scholar-athletic. He taught history and psychology and coached football, basketball and baseball at Grand Rapids West Catholic High School for five years, during which time he earned an M.A. in educational administration from Michigan State University.
Mr. Sherman currently resides in Valparaiso, Indiana with his wife, Meg and 4 children.
Recipient, Public Interest Law Initiative Fellowship - Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, 1988.