Our Personal Injury Staff

In order to maintain my high level of personal commitment to our cases, Donald A. Shapiro, Ltd. has chosen not to follow the path of other firms that accept every case and maintain an army of associate lawyers. We are highly selective about the cases we accept and I employ only two associate attorneys.

Clifford Silverman, of Counsel: Cliff Silverman is a graduate of DePaul Law School who was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1969, the Florida bar in 1975, and the Arizona bar in 1984. Cliff’s primary area of expertise is Worker’s Compensation and few, if any, Illinois lawyers have more knowledge, experience and savvy in the field than Cliff.

Matthew R. Basinger has a bachelor of science degree from Ohio University and a law degree from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He worked for the Medina County (Ohio) Prosecuting Attorney's Office and then moved into private practice in Cleveland before moving to Chicago in 2005 to concentrate in the personal injury field. Matt joined Donald A. Shapiro, Ltd. in April, 2007 and has been a major component of the continuing success of our firm.

Lauren Cohen is a graduate of the University of Texas and graduated from Chicago Kent College of Law-Illinois Institute of Technology with honors. Lauren is licensed in Texas and Illinois. Lauren works on the firm's personal injury cases and heads our outstanding Social Security disability practice.

Legal assistant, Teresa Monsivais, is a graduate of Fox College and has been an excellent addition to our firm since June 2009. Teresa's bilingual skills are of tremendous assistance in providing legal services to our Hispanic clients.

Our office manager/legal assistant is Judy Schultz. Judy started with us in 1988 and runs the office like a well oiled machine scheduling depositions, communicating with clients and doctors, handling the paperwork and reminding me of the ten thousand things I need to do on a daily basis.