Matthew Sims

Matthew Sims is a shareholder with the firm and a trial lawyer who represents victims and their families in catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases. He has litigated cases in jurisdictions across the country and has tried cases to verdict in several states.

Matthew regularly handles high-profile and complex cases, including traumatic brain injury cases, explosions, commercial trucking accidents, defective product cases, construction injuries, medical malpractice, and commercial aviation crashes.

Matthew regularly handles high-profile and complex cases, including traumatic brain injury cases, explosions, commercial trucking accidents, defective product cases, construction injuries, medical malpractice, and commercial aviation crashes.

He is currently serving as court appointed lead counsel in all federal litigation arising out of the Husky Superior Refinery Explosion. He is involved in numerous high profile aviation disasters, including the Boeing 737 Max 8 litigation arising out of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, where he serves on the Plaintiffs' Executive Committee, the 2019 Ketchikan Alaska Midair Collision, and the 2020 Soldotna Alaska Midair Collision. Recently, he served as co-lead counsel in the crash of US Airways Flight 1702.

Due to his experience in representing his clients, Matthew has been selected as an Illinois Super Lawyer Rising Star every year from 2014-2021 - a distinction limited to only the top 2.5% of lawyers under the age of 40 in the State of Illinois. He has also been repeatedly selected by the National Trial Lawyers as a "Top 40 Under 40" attorney practicing in the field of plaintiff's personal injury, every year since 2017.

In addition to representing the injured and their families in the trial court, Matthew has experience with appellate matters in the Illinois Appellate Court, the Illinois Supreme Court, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States.

Matthew originally hails from the western suburbs of Chicago where he grew up and attended high school. He received his bachelor's degree from Purdue University, earning a Certificate of Superior Achievement from the Department of History, before returning to Chicago to attend law school.

Matthew graduated from The John Marshall Law School with his Juris Doctorate, as well as a Certificate in Trial Advocacy, which was awarded to less than 3% of graduating students. At The John Marshall Law School, he won the school-wide Dean Herzog Moot Court Competition.  In addition to winning the overall competition which included oral arguments, his legal brief was also recognized as the best written brief of the competition.  Supplementing his formal education during law school with practical experience, he clerked for the Cook County Public Defender's Office, as well as the Presiding Judge of the Fifth District of Cook County