Chester A. Lizak

Chester A. Lizak, a graduate of DePaul University School of Law (1963), concentrates in the trial and appeal of civil matters. He represents clients involved in commercial disputes, controversies between partners and corporate shareholders, insurance coverage disputes and personal injury claims.

Chet has written for legal journals and has lectured before bar groups on the litigation topics. He is former Chairman of the Chicago Bar Association’s Defense of Prisoners Committee and Past President of the Advocates Society.

Chet has been recognized as one of the “Top 100 Trial Lawyers in the State of Illinois” by the American Trial Lawyers Association. Chet has received numerous awards including an Award of Merit from the Advocates Society of Polish American Lawyers, the Distinguished Service Award from DePaul College of Law, and in 2006 he was recognized by Chicago Magazine as one of the Top Illinois Super Lawyers

For the first 10 years of his practice, Chet practiced primarily criminal law. During that time, while Chairman of the Chicago Bar Association Defense of Prisoners Committee, he obtained not-guilty dispositions for indigent defendants in eight consecutive non-capital murder cases.

In the last capital murder case he tried, the jury convicted the defendant but declined to impose the death penalty. Chet and his partner, Warren Swanson spent three weeks trying the case and almost two years prior to the trial, investigating and preparing the case for trial. The trial court awarded $250.00 in fees for the case that involved more than 463 billable hours. The Illinois Supreme Court decided that the trial court’s award of fees was inadequate. They doubled the fee to $500.00. There are not too many lawyers in the State of Illinois that can say that there is an Illinois Supreme Court Opinion finding that his legal services are worth $1.08 per hour. The trial was also memorable because Chet and his wife, Noreen, got married two weeks after the trial began and one week before the trial concluded.

After the foregoing trial, Chet decided that he should become a civil litigator. As a civil litigator, Chet has tried cases involving personal injury, condemnation, construction claims, probate disputes, wrongful demolition, commercial disputes and insurance coverage cases.