David J. Chizewer Principal
phone	312.201.3938
fax	312.863.7438
email	david.chizewer@goldbergkohn.com

David Chizewer, a principal in the firm's litigation group, was recently featured in the National Law Journal’s list of 10 of the nation’s top litigators.  In 2007, he was named Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Public Justice Foundation.  He was a runner-up for that same award in 2006.

Mr. Chizewer served as co-lead trial counsel in two of the country's most prominent public interest cases to be tried in the past several years:

• In October 2006, Mr. Chizewer was co-lead trial counsel for Plaintiffs, and obtained the largest verdict in the history of the federal False Claim Act, in the case captioned, United States of America ex. rel. Cleveland A. Tyson, et al. v. Amerigroup Corporation, et al., pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Please click here to learn more about Goldberg Kohn's False Claims Act practice.
  
  
• In May 2004, Mr. Chizewer was co-lead trial counsel for a class of 600,000 children on Medicaid against the State of Illinois in the case captioned, Memisovski, et al. v. Patla, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, obtaining a judgment that secured some of the most sweeping reforms ever to a state Medicaid program.

In 2006, for his efforts in the Memisovski case, Mr. Chizewer was the recipient of the Excellence in Pro Bono Award from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.  In 2005, he received the Child Advocate Award from the American Association of Pediatrics.

On the defense side, Mr. Chizewer has been entrusted to try and defend bet-the-company cases, including trying a case in a rural, plaintiff-friendly district, where he obtained a remarkable result, even in the face of extreme jury bias.

He currently serves as lead counsel to one of the principal defendants in the Multi-District Class Action Litigation captioned, In Re Ocwen Federal Bank Mortgage Servicing Litigation, pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and was elected to represent more than two hundred Third-Party Defendants in the Multi-District Litigation captioned, In Re Ameriquest.

Mr. Chizewer  has served as an expert witness on issues of federal civil procedure and is a frequent author and speaker, including a presentation at the National Advocacy Center on strategies for trying a health care fraud case.

In a civic capacity, Mr. Chizewer is at the forefront of the legal issues affecting the education reform movement.  He is one of the founders and Board President of the Chicago International Charter School, the nation's largest charter school, and also founded the Illinois Network of Charter Schools.  He has been a member of the Education Policy Group for the Barack Obama U.S. Senate and Presidential Campaigns.  In May 2005, he argued a seminal charter school case before the Illinois Supreme Court.

As a result of Mr. Chizewer's civic leadership, he was selected a Leadership Fellow for the 2003-2004 Leadership Greater Chicago Program.  Past fellows include Michelle Obama, John W. Rogers, Jr. and Valerie Jarrett.

Mr. Chizewer received his law degree from the University of Chicago in 1991 and his B.A. in economics, magna cum laude, from Pomona College in 1988.  He was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Education

• University of Chicago, J.D., 1991
• Pomona College, B.A. in economics, magna cum laude, 1988

• Principal David J. Chizewer featured in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
• The Rainmaking Machine (Marketing Planning, Strategy and Management for Firms)
• International Class Actions: Predicting the Next Wave of Class Litigation
• What to Watch for in the Bridgestone/Firestone Litigation
• New York Court of Appeals Decides Negligent Marketing Case