Michael F. Bonamarte, IV 2

Michael Bonamarte IV is a skilled and passionate attorney who has achieved outstanding results in a number of high-profile nursing home, wrongful death, medical malpractice and personal injury cases. His commitment to his clients is rooted in a family legacy of love of the law and meaningful service to those in need, with a special respect and admiration for the elders that our society so often fails to honor.

Michael enjoys golf, basketball, running, yoga and spending time with his wife, Julia, and their daughter Gabriella Grace, “GG,” who is seven years old. He was raised in Highland Park, a community his family has been dedicated to serving for generations. His great grandfather was a fingerprint expert with the Highland Park Police, and his grandfather served as the police chief for 38 years. Michael’s father was a Lake County attorney who represented elders in probate transactions. With a legacy like that, it is only natural that Michael IV would thrive in leadership roles and pursue work that made a difference in people’s lives. After a successful high school football career as captain and starting varsity quarterback at Highland Park High School, Michael earned his B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating with academic distinction. In 2005, he graduated from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, where he earned a place on the dean’s list during his second and third years. He joined Levin & Perconti as an associate attorney in August 2005 and in March 2014 was named Partner.

Michael is an effective and diligent attorney. In 2017 Michael and associate A.J. Thut obtained a $2.7 million jury verdict for the estate of a 67-year-old man who died from complications related to a fall at Southpoint Nursing Home on Chicago’s southside.

Michael also played a crucial role in a $7.5 million Illinois Record Jones Act Settlement recovered on behalf of a boat worker who was injured in an explosion. He has also recovered a $4.75 million medical malpractice settlement, a $2.325 million settlement of a pressure ulcer case against a Chicago assisted-living facility, a $1.8 million medical malpractice verdict, a $1.4 million settlement in a nursing home pressure sore lawsuit and a $1.25 million medical malpractice settlement against a dialysis center for its staff’s failure to monitor a resident’s dialysis catheter.

Even in his first jury trial, Michael, who sat second-chair to Steven Levin, achieved a $2.9 million verdict for the family of a deceased 57-year-old nursing home resident who suffocated due to the home’s negligent care of her tracheostomy tube. This was a record verdict in a Cook County nursing home case.

In addition to these settlements, Mike settled a construction accident case for $1.5 million, a $1 million nursing home pressure ulcer settlement and a premises liability/wrongful death case for $975,000 for the family of a young man who fell from a Chicago porch railing. He also achieved a record settlement of $700,000 in a case against a Coles County, IL, nursing home. Mike has also recovered a jury verdict of $552,000 for his client for a fall and ankle fracture suffered during physical therapy at a nursing home.

Along with his casework, Mike enthusiastically shares his knowledge and experience by speaking regularly to colleagues and community organizations, including the American Association for Justice, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education. Mike has given speeches on nursing home litigation as well as deposition strategies. He has also made presentations on nursing home abuse to Chicago-area senior organizations and Illinois aging professionals.

Mike is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association, American Bar Association, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, Former President of the American Association for Justice Nursing Home Litigation Group, and the Justinian Society of Lawyers. He is also a past President of the Justinian Society and writes the verdicts and settlements section in the organization’s newsletter. Additionally, Mike is a member of the ISBA’s Young Lawyers Division Council and also served on the board of directors for the River North Business Association.

In September 2010, Michael was honored as one of the “40 Illinois Attorneys Under Forty to Watch,” and he has also been named an Illinois Rising Star by Super Lawyers in every year since 2011. Mike was honored with an award for Trial Lawyer Excellence for the Highest Reported Illinois Verdict in a Nursing Home Malpractice case.

Michael is president and founder of the Michael F. Bonamarte III Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness and funding research on the treatment and prevention of strokes. Michael founded the organization in memory of his late father, Michael F. Bonamarte III, who passed away in 2006. The Foundation has raised over $60,000 since its inception.

Michael was named as one of the Law Bulletin Publishing Company’s “40 Illinois Attorneys Under Forty to Watch” in 2010. This honor is awarded to forty of the most talented young lawyers in the state for their outstanding work on behalf of clients, their efforts to advance the legal profession and their community service. Click on the link to view Mike’s “40 Under Forty” profile.

Partner Michael Bonamarte of Levin & Perconti recently shared his insights on a podcast regarding a $7 million verdict awarded on behalf of a military veteran with a history of mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a highly debilitating mental condition. The challenging case raised questions about whether the man’s untimely death was self-inflicted or due to the improper care he received during medical transport. In EPISODE #33, presented by Preferred Capital Funding on its podcast titled The Result, Bonamarte delves into the case details and how he achieved victory for this veteran’s grieving family.

Selected to serve on the Illinois State Bar Association Steering Committee on Racial Inequality