Stephen Tillery

Stephen M. Tillery is the senior member of Korein Tillery, LLC.  Steve has litigated cases throughout the United States involving numerous areas of the law, including securities, antitrust, pharmaceutical, environmental contamination, tobacco, products liability, patent infringement, qui tam/whistleblower, Federal Employers Liability Act, computer technology and consumer fraud.  He has handled, individually or as lead counsel, hundreds of complex civil cases, with more than one hundred resulting in multimillion dollar verdicts or settlements.  He was nominated for the Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Award in 2003, 2008 and 2013 for his work in significant complex cases. Steve has authored numerous articles and book chapters on trial practice. In addition, he has served as lecturer, moderator, and panel member at dozens of legal seminars relating to litigation and trial practice.

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Steve has been appointed lead counsel in more than 40 class action lawsuits. In March 2003, Steve served as plaintiff’s lead trial counsel in a class action trial that resulted in a $10.1 billion verdict. Price v. Philip Morris Inc., 2003 WL 22597608 (Ill.Cir. Mar 21, 2003), rev’d, 848 N.E.2d 1 (Ill. Dec 15, 2005), reh’g denied, 846 N.E.2d 597 (Ill. May 5, 2006), cert denied, 127 S.Ct. 685 (Nov. 27, 2006).

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He was an adjunct professor at Saint Louis University School of Law for eleven years, and was Director of the Advanced Trial Advocacy Program there from 1983 to 1988. Steve is admitted to the State Bars of Illinois and Missouri, the District of Columbia, all Federal District Courts of Illinois, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the United States Supreme Court. Steve is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, where he has served as one of the Board of Managers since 1980, and for which he has chaired and served on numerous committees. He also serves on the board of Public Justice.

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Steve has been a long time supporter of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwestern Illinois and he serves on the international board of Meds and Food for Kids, a not-for-profit organization located in Haiti which manufactures and donates a nutritionally-fortified peanut butter food source to malnourished Haitian children.  He has traveled to Haiti several times, visiting clinics and the M&FK facilities in Cap-Haitien.  The organization has saved literally thousands of Haitian children from starvation.

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Steve is a strong supporter of his alma mater, Illinois College, to which he recently gifted Gillette House.  Listed on the National Historic Register and located just one block from campus, it was built by Dr. Bezaleel Gillette, a famous abolitionist, and used to protect runaway slaves.   Since his donation of the Gillette House, it has been used as a library, a classroom, and as housing for visiting professors.

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Steve travels extensively, often climbing mountains in foreign countries. Click here to read a description of his experience climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa.

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Assistant: Laura Dunn