Peter Sullivan and Scott Seaman Selected as Crain’s Chicago Business 2024 Notable Leaders in Law

Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP is pleased to announce that Crain’s Chicago Business has selected firm chairman Peter Sullivan and partner Scott Seaman among its 2024 Notable Leaders in Accounting, Consulting & Law list.

Each year, Crain’s Chicago Business recognizes senior-level leaders in accounting, consulting, and law who have demonstrated the ability to effect positive change within their organizations, serve as role models and mentors, and contribute to their communities through leadership roles in professional and nonprofit service organizations. According to Crain’s, this year’s notable leaders are “touching practically every aspect of business in Chicago.”

Sullivan was recently elected to his second three-year term as the firm’s chairman. In this role, he leads Hinshaw’s management team, and he has been instrumental in the firm’s significant recent expansion, with the establishment of new offices in Washington, D.C., Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, and New Jersey under his tenure. In 2023, he oversaw the firm’s merger with Chicago firm Adler Murphy & McQuillen. He also helped increase the firm’s revenue by more than 11 percent in 2023 to $218 million and grow attorney headcount from 384 FTE in 2022 to more than 425 FTE in 2023.

Sullivan’s commitment to recruiting and retaining diverse talent was key to the firm’s move into the Top 50 in the American Lawyer Diversity Scorecard in 2023. He balances his leadership responsibilities with his active law practice, representing companies in complex professional liability and commercial litigation matters, including claims against accountants, attorneys, directors, and officers, as well as consumer class actions and breach of contract. In addition, he is an active member of the American Bar Association, Chicago Bar Association, Defense Research Institute, and Illinois State Bar Association.

Seaman is co-chair of Hinshaw’s Global Insurance Services Practice Group and co-leader of the Insurance Industry sector group. In his leadership role, he oversees and plans the practice's strategic growth and direction. Under his leadership over the past eight years, the practice group has cemented its reputation as a leading national insurance practice, growing to 110 lawyers nationwide and increasing revenues by 88 percent. In addition, his dedication to diversity has resulted in a 40 percent increase in diverse lawyers within the practice.

In addition to his leadership responsibilities, Seaman manages a heavy caseload and has a successful track record representing insurers, reinsurers, and companies in state and federal courts. He defends clients in high-stakes litigation matters, including general liability, professional liability, cyber, bad faith, directors' and officers' liability, and first-party property coverage. He is among the leaders of Global Access Lawyers, an alliance of law firms worldwide representing insurance and financial services companies. The American Lawyer magazine previously acknowledged him for "high-profile, complex insurance coverage cases nationwide, which resulted in precedent-setting rulings that have altered insurance law." A recognized thought leader, he has written numerous publications, notably the insurance treatise Allocation of Losses in Complex Insurance Claims (12th Ed. 2024), and he hosts Insurance Law TV, which was a 2024 Communication Awards Distinction Winner.

A 26-year cancer survivor, Seaman co-founded the Chicago Chapter of the Lymphoma Research Foundation and is a founding board member of the Hippocratic Cancer Research Foundation, serving as co-chair of its 2022 gala benefiting the Lurie Cancer Center at Northwestern. He also served on the National Board of Selectors of the Jefferson Awards for Public Service (JA) and as co-chair of JA Chicago.

View Seaman's Crain’s Chicago Business profile (subscription required)
View Sullivan's Crain's Chicago Business profile (subscription required)

View the full list of Crain’s Chicago Business honorees (subscription required)