Heather Terese Gilbert

Ms. Gilbert spent her first years of practice working as an Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago, where she represented the City and its employees in personal injury cases. Her work included successfully drafting and arguing several motions to dismiss and motions for summary judgment, as well as serving as lead counsel at numerous arbitrations and jury trials in Cook County. Notable trial victories include: Donald VanBeek v. City of Chicago, in which Plaintiff was injured when a police officer responding to a call ran a red light without lights or sirens, striking Plaintiff's vehicle, and Stefania Lelonkiwicz v. City of Chicago, which involved an elderly Plaintiff who fell on a defect on a City sidewalk, sustaining a fracture.

Thereafter, Ms. Gilbert joined a private Chicago law firm where she focused her practice on medical negligence, with an emphasis on hospital liability. Ms. Gilbert handled cases involving a wide range of medical specialties including emergency medicine, critical care, birth injury, neonatal care, and psychiatry. Ms. Gilbert prepared and presented nurses and physicians for deposition, deposed treating physicians and expert witnesses, and second chaired jury trials. Notable trial victories include a medical negligence case in which Plaintiff alleged that he suffered from a stroke as a result of Defendants' failure to perform a proper work-up for cardiovascular disease. Ms. Gilbert also successfully drafted and argued a dispositive motion for summary judgment in a premises liability case, in which a patient's mother struck her head on a wall cabinet in a treatment room.

Since joining Cassiday Schade in 2012, Ms. Gilbert has continued to defend health care practitioners in medical negligence cases. In addition, her practice also includes other complex civil litigation, including: construction, products liability, insurance coverage litigation, premises liability, and motor vehicle collisions. Ms. Gilbert has also argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in a wrongful death case, in which the lower court's granting of her motion for summary judgment was affirmed.

Ms. Gilbert earned a B.A. in English from Indiana University in 2001, where she graduated with high distinction. In 2004, she earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from Case Western Reserve School of Law. While at Case, Ms. Gilbert was an extern for the Honorable Kenneth F. Ripple of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. She was also a member of the Student Bar Association and served as Executive Articles Editor for Health Matrix: Journal of Law and Medicine.

Experience
Brandon Kroft and Heather Gilbert prevail before the 7th Circuit on dismissal of wrongful death action