Appellate Victory: Court Upholds Ruling That Doctor Was Not Qualified As Expert Witness

Lowis & Gellen appellate attorneys Mehreen S. Sherwani and Joan K. Kubalanza (now serving as a judge in the Circuit Court) successfully defended the dismissal of a primary care physician on appeal before the First District Court Appellate Court. In a split decision, the appellate court affirmed the Circuit Court's grant of a motion in limine brought by the co-defendant surgeon, seeking to prevent Plaintiff's expert from testifying that the surgeon violated the standard of care when he chose not to perform a biopsy on Plaintiff's swollen lymph nodes. In affirming the judgment, the appellate court held that Plaintiff's expert was properly barred from testifying that there was a causal connection between the defendants' alleged failure to timely diagnose Plaintiff's lymphoma and her subsequent development of ovarian cancer.

Trial attorneys Mark J. Smith and Scott R. Wolfe successfully defended this case in the Circuit Court of Cook County before Judge Carol Pearce McCarthy. Ms. Sherwani drafted the appellate brief and Mr. Wolfe argued the case before the appellate court. When asked by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin about the appellate ruling, Mr. Smith stated that it "echoes existing case law." To view the entire Law Bulletin article click here.

Katherine Rowe joins the firm for the month of January from Norton Rose LLP, an international law firm based in London. Katherine trained at Norton Rose and qualified into the Mergers and Acquisitions team two years ago. She regularly acts for both public and private companies (based both in the UK and in Europe) as well as a number of hedge funds on their domestic and cross border M&A transactions. Katherine also provides general corporate advice to various international companies on an ongoing basis, including amongst others, a leading top end European car manufacturer. In addition, she was recently on secondment to BBC Worldwide Limited, the commercial arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation (the principal public sector broadcaster in the UK) assisting with a Competition Commission enquiry. During her time with Lowis & Gellen, Katherine will be looking to further develop the relationship between Lowis & Gellen and Norton Rose to better serve our mutual clients.