Cecilia Horan concentrates her practice in the defense of cases involving personal injury, premises liability, products liability and the representation of insurance companies in determination of claims for coverage.

She has represented major insurance companies, transportation providers, machinery and product manufacturers, management services providers and property owners and managers. A selection of Ms. Horan’s representative cases includes:

• Wolkomir v. Zeeb Trucking, Circuit Court of Cook County, Case No. 06 L 362. The Wolkomir plaintiff was a teenage girl who was a passenger in a car struck by our trucking company client’s driver. Plaintiff sustained incomplete quadriplegia and over $500,000 in medical bills. She accused two co-defendants of illegally providing alcohol to the driver of the car under an Illinois statute which provides that a social host who provides alcohol to an impaired minor who, in turn, injures another person can be held liable for the usual elements of damage for a personal injury case, plus attorneys fees, expert fees and punitive damages. Ms. Horan and her colleagues counterclaimed against the alcohol providers using the same Illinois statute. In addition, they hired an expert witness team who emphasized that the driver should not be held liable for post-accident analysis that exhibits "hindsight bias." On the eve of trial, the plaintiff agreed to settle the case with all defendants. Ms. Horan and her colleagues negotiated settlement for an amount slightly over 2% of the entire settlement amount. In addition, since Hinshaw’s clients were plaintiffs in addition to being defendants, Ms. Horan and her colleagues were successful in convincing the co-defendants to contribute a substantial amount to the clients and their insurance carrier for their damages and the defense of this case.
• In Re: Bristol Transportation Fatal Accident. In Bristol, Hinshaw’s client's driver incorrectly loaded a backhoe/endloader onto a flatbed trailer and failed to measure the total height of the load to verify that it did not exceed the statutory and regulatory limit. The arm of the backhoe subsequently caught the top of a viaduct, which caused the equipment to brake away from the trailer and fall into oncoming traffic, killing the driver of one vehicle and injuring the driver and passenger in another. Ms. Horan and her colleagues convinced the plaintiff's attorney to forego filing a lawsuit, and, instead, mediated the claim, which settled six months after the accident for less than 70% of the total primary and excess policy limits.
• United States v. Michael Segal, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Case No. 02 CR 0112. Ms. Horan represented a major insurance company in the defense of a motion brought by a trustee of the defendant’s brokerage firm to recover commissions in the amount of $1.5 million that were withheld by the insurer as a setoff for the payment of a claim to a municipality on a policy that was wrongly bound by the broker and never written by the insurer. On behalf of the insurer, Ms. Horan and her colleagues previously filed a declaratory judgment action in state court seeking to recover this money, but all claims against the broker were stayed as part of the criminal action in federal court in which Michael Segal, the broker principal, was found guilty of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (R.I.C.O.) Act, and ordered to forfeit $30 million. It was Ms. Horan’s position that the broker’s E&O carrier was responsible for payment of the claim. After substantial investigation and negotiation, the parties agreed that the disputed amount was significantly less than claimed, and entered into a very favorable settlement, especially in light of the potential for an award against the insurer for pre- and post judgment interest and attorneys fees, which were sought by the Trustee.

Ms. Horan joined Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP after graduating from law school in 1997. She is a member of the Chicago Bar Association and the Illinois Association of Trial Defense Counsel.

She is a member of the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago, where she serves on the Board of Directors. Ms. Horan assisted in the authorship of the “Comprehensive General Liability Policies” and “Declaratory Judgments” chapters of the current "Liability Insurance" volume published by the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education. In addition, she is a co-author of “Attacking the Indian Arts and Crafts Act,” which appeared in the September 13, 2005 issue of The Business Suit, a publication of the Defense Research Institute.

Ms. Horan was the moderator of “LBGT Adoption: Managing the Process at Home an at Work,” an event sponsored by Hinshaw as part of Citywide Pride 2009, Chicago, Illinois, June 2009. Cecilia is the drummer for “The Nuisance,” a rock band comprised of Hinshaw attorneys. The band was chosen to participate in FORTUNE Magazine’s 2010 Battle of the Corporate Bands, and advanced to the finals held at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, in Cleveland, Ohio in October 2010, where it finished in third place. The Nuisance is working on its first CD.

Cecilia is the subject of an “In The Spotlight” profile about her drumming in the March/April 2011 edition of Making Music Magazine.