A Chicago native, I graduated from South Shore High School in 1967. I attended college at the University of Illinois, Urbana, where I was admitted to Phi Beta Kappa, became President of the James Scholar Society and graduated with high honors in liberals arts and highest distinction in economics. From there, I went to the University of Chicago Law School where I received my Juris Doctor degree in 1974. While in law school, I worked at Aaron, Aaron, Schimberg and Hess and upon graduation, they hired me full time as a litigator - a trial lawyer.

After preparing and trying commercial litigation cases for four years, I decided that I'd prefer helping people instead of corporations, so I quit and started Donald A. Shapiro, Ltd. in 1978. I've never looked back.

One of my first jury trials was a legal malpractice case against a downstate lawyer who had mishandled a young widow's case for her husband's wrongful death. We obtained the highest verdict in Illinois history for a legal malpractice case as well as the largest verdict of any kind in Clay County, Illinois. Since then I have obtained numerous million dollar plus settlements and verdicts for our firm's clients in cases of medical malpractice, product liability and wrongful death.

Two of my most publicized cases have involved professional athletes. In 1990, I represented Randy Ready, a former Milwaukee Brewer, for a case of medical malpractice that had left his wife, Dorene, seriously brain damaged. A Milwaukee jury awarded the Readys $24.7 million dollars - the largest malpractice verdict in Wisconsin history.

In 1995, I represented Marty Barrett, the former second baseman for the Boston Red Sox, in a medical malpractice case against the team physician. A federal court in Massachusetts awarded a judgment for $2.3 million and the case became the subject of a ten page article in the November 6, 1995 issue of Sports Illustrated.

Another highly publicized verdict was the $9.6 million dollar judgment awarded by a Cook County jury on October 17, 2003 in the Bobby Russ case. Bobby Russ was a 22 year old Northwestern football player who was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer after being pulled over for a routine traffic violation on June 5, 1999. The trial lasted six weeks and was heavily reported by the Chicago media.

In July, 2006, I set another record – the highest medical malpractice verdict in the history of Kane County, Illinois.  In fact, our verdict of $24,775,000.00 was over four times the previous high verdict.  The case involved a 37 year old woman who was left severely brain damaged when a nurse improperly removed a central venous catheter.  Further details regarding this and other verdicts can be found at the verdicts and settlements portion of this website

While I enjoy the limelight of these high profile cases, every case in our office is treated with the utmost care and diligence. We realize that your case is extremely important to you and thus, unlike many law firm "factories", I am personally involved in every case. We also pride ourselves in communicating with our clients in order to let you know what is going on with your case.