Waterloo, IL

Jack A. Strellis

Mr. Strellis has advocated the claims of his clients resulting in multiple million dollar verdicts and settlements. He has tried to verdict over a hundred jury trials and has shared his experience with the younger members of the firm. Jack Strellis engages the wrongdoer on the playing fields of the U.S. and State courts. Relief is also sought against employers before the Industrial Commission. Jack attended Austin High on the west side of Chicago and there served as president of the student government, and went on and graduated from University of Illinois, Urbana, in physics and chemistry. Jack, a graduate of Loyola School of Law in Chicago (1971), first practiced with the firm of McCarthy and Levin on Monroe Street in Chicago and there was engaged in an active civil trial practice. (May 1971- December 1971) Here, Jack represented many of the disadvantaged in our society and has never forgotten the need that these dignified members of our society have for effective access to the courts. Mr. Strellis served as an Assistant United Stated Attorney (1971-1975) within the Department of Justice. Twenty-nine public officials including mayors, legislators, and school board members were prosecuted by Mr. Strellis and were convicted and sentenced. The work ethic of Mr. Strellis was shown there when, Jack, during his tenure with the United States Attorney’s Office tried three federal felony cases to jury verdict in one week, all before U.S. Judge Henry Wise, now deceased. When one jury was deliberating the next was being chosen! While serving as First Assistant, Jack also represented the United States in Tort Claims cases and under The Economic Stabilization Act of 1972 pursued actions to stem inflation. Jack Strellis argued civil and criminal cases before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals including en banc reviews, meaning appeals before all the judges of the 7th Circuit. Jack carries a union card (BRRT) and has steadfastly represented union members, including: Carpenters and millwrights constructing commercial and residential structures; Hod carriers and masons for injuries while working on scaffold; Electricians and maintenance personnel; Brakemen suffering loss as a result of an unsafe work place or failed switches, Trainmen working the hump when setting skates; RR Engineers and carmen for toxic inhalations; Ironworkers walking the iron, setting purloins, building scaffold, or excavating concrete for footings of structural steel; Chemists and other workers exposed to heavy metals. Jack has represented workers caught in peril of defective products where detonations occurred and lock-down mechanisms failed. These represent just a small share of the life altering experiences of his clients. Jack believes that a medical malpractice case must be handled with particular respect for the medical professional. He believes that mistakes can be made that are not actionable and, therefore, a number of cases should not be filed. There are no guarantees in medicine! With that having been said, if a respected medical provider certifies that the case of our client is meritorious, then we prepare to the hilt, lending all our resources, and will take on all comers to right the wrong so that our client is fairly and reasonable compensated. Likewise, Jack has brought actions against engineers, architect and other professional that had failed to exercise reasonable care and caused injury to our clients. This is where respect for the scientific method has paid particular dividends for our clients. Mr. Strellis has successfully prosecuted Sherman and Clayton Act anti-trust cases along with a number of cases that unreasonable restrained trade. Employment discrimination, slander, retaliatory discharge, and civil right cases handled by Mr. Strellis have resulted in recoveries in excess of a million dollars. The largest jury verdict for retaliatory discharge in Illinois was the result of Mr. Strellis and his partner Dennis Field’s prosecution. The foundation of Jack A. Strellis’ legal representation of clients is founded on scientific and engineering principals and the respect for the scientific method. Mr. Strellis’ trial applies well-founded scientific and economic principals with impressionable demonstrative evidence. Knowing this, insurance agents know when it is in their interest to settle a case.

Gregg E. Strellis

Gregg concentrates on zealously representing victims of catastrophic injuries. Gregg has spent his entire legal career fighting for severely injured individuals against insurance companies and large corporations. Gregg strongly believes that his job is to balance the scales of justice in a society that often times hinders individual victims from recovering fair compensation against large and powerful special interest groups. In furtherance of these goals, Gregg has tried numerous personal injury cases to verdict and has multiple recoveries in excess of a million dollars. Gregg has obtained substantial recoveries for victims of construction accidents, medical malpractice and injuries caused by unreasonably dangerous and defective products. Gregg believes that the foundation for a successful winning legal strategy is his teamwork with his clients. Gregg takes pride in getting his hands dirty and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. Gregg is admitted to practice in all Illinois courts, including every Federal District Court in Illinois (Northern District of Illinois, Central District of Illinois and Southern District of Illinois). Gregg is admitted to practice in the Southern District of Indiana, Northern District of Indiana, Eastern District of Michigan and the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Gregg is a member of the American Association for Justice and the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. AAJ and ITLA, and their membership, focus on educating and assisting trial lawyers in obtaining fair compensation for victims of catastrophic accidents. Gregg is active in the 7th Circuit Bar Association, the Illinois Bar Association and the St. Clair County Bar Association. Gregg was raised in Waterloo, Illinois and is a product of the fine teachers in the Illinois Public School System. He attended Waterloo High School serving as his graduating class President. Gregg attended the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana where he received a BS in Finance. During his studies at the University of Illinois, Gregg competed for the Varsity Men’s Tennis Team. Gregg attended law school at Indiana University in Bloomington Indiana. Gregg represented indigent clients in the Legal Clinic while attending law school. Gregg is active in continuing an association with his law school participating as a Judge for Moot Court Competitions wherein students practice Oral Advocacy.

Stephanie Weissman

Stephanie Weissman strives to give a voice to those who have been injured due to the negligence of others and fights zealously to vindicate their rights. Stephanie believes that everyone is entitled to representation and is deserving of their day in court. The daughter of a Venezuelan mother and an Italian father, she learned early in life that in order to be heard, you have to speak up. Stephanie grew up on the shores of sunny south Florida. She attended college at Florida State University, where she majored in Psychology and developed a deep love for Florida State football. While at Florida State, she volunteered at a crisis counseling and suicide prevention hotline. She graduated from college in three years and decided to become a reverse snowbird, so she packed her bags and moved to Chicago with a suitcase full of flip flops and not a single winter jacket. Stephanie has worked at Strellis Firm Law Offices for over a decade. Fluent in Spanish, she started working for Strellis Firm Law Offices in 2006, where among other things, she acted as the liaison between the partners and the firm’s numerous Spanish-speaking clients. At Strellis Firm Law Offices, she was instrumental in working with the partners in every aspect of litigation, from the initial client meetings, through the discovery phases and all the way through trial. She has had the unique opportunity of handling each case from different perspectives: initially administrative perspective and currently, that of an attorney. In 2010, inspired by her work, Stephanie became a law student at DePaul University College of Law. In addition to attending law school at night, she spent her days working full time at the firm. At DePaul, Stephanie excelled, earning in addition to other academic awards, the CALI Excellence for the Future Award in Trial Advocacy, an award given to the highest scoring student of each law school class. Stephanie lives in Chicago and loves everything the City has to offer. When not practicing law, she enjoys spending time with her family, including her husband Marc, who is also an attorney, her daughter Olivia Rose and her wheaten terrier, Jackson.

Amanda Chase

Amanda Lynn Chase joins Strellis & Field, Chartered after a decade of passionately advocating for victims. As a prosecutor in Houston and Dallas, Texas, Amanda’s job was to seek justice. Amanda strongly believes that integrity is crucial in the practice of law. Amanda is a zealous advocate for our clients. Amanda’s work ethic is unmatched. Amanda graduated magna cum laude from the University of North Texas and in the top third of her class at South Texas College of Law. Early in her career, Amanda interned at the District Attorney’s Office thirty hours per week while attending law school full time, participating in trial advocacy and leading the college’s Public Interest Law Society. After law school, she prosecuted felony, misdemeanor and juvenile offenses in district and county courts at law in the country’s fourth largest county. She gained a great deal of litigation experience in Houston, with numerous jury trials. Amanda also served as a Community Prosecutor and Assistant City Attorney for the City of Dallas where she coordinated complex nuisance abatement projects. She organized multi-agency enforcement initiatives to address egregious code violations related to public health and safety, utilizing the resources of various city, state, and federal departments to reduce violent crime. Amanda is also compassionate. She coordinated a background friendly job fair featuring more than one hundred employers offering work to formerly incarcerated individuals. Amanda is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, the Monroe County Bar Association, and is an applicant to the Missouri Bar. Amanda is committed to earning your trust. When she moved to Waterloo almost three years ago, she immediately invested her legal skills in the community. For the last three semesters, Amanda taught white-collar crime and mock trial at Lindenwood University in Belleville. Amanda also taught two semesters of trial advocacy as the volunteer mock trial coach for a Monroe County homeschool cooperative. Amanda advocates for equal access to justice. Since moving to Illinois, she donated 50 hours of pro bono legal services. Amanda was born in Maine. Her father, who studied genealogy before ancestry services became popular, traced their family lineage to Mayflower passengers Priscilla Alden and Myles Standish. Amanda developed a fondness for the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as a result of her family’s unique heritage. Amanda was raised in Texas with her two sisters, her best friends. She loves her new home in Waterloo, but misses the authentic Mexican cuisine so abundant in Texas. She moved to Waterloo at the end of 2016 with her husband Joshua Heal and their two children, Avery and Lincoln. They purchased the Heal family’s Waterloo home, right down the street from Joshua’s parents. Joshua practices as a CPA and CFE for Olin Corporation. Josh was raised on a farm in Bunker Hill, Illinois and spends his weekends building the Mission style furniture on Amanda’s honey do list. Avery and Lincoln love being Waterloo Bulldogs. They enjoy playing in the family’s “Evergreen Hideout” and creating in their craft room.

Carrie Cotter

Carrie has spent her career focusing on complex litigation, and believes that communication is the key to representing clients effectively and making the sometimes very confusing process understandable. Carrie started her career at Sidley Austin where she practiced primarily patent litigation. Carrie is admitted to the Patent Bar as well as the State Bars of Illinois and California. While at Sidley, her practice focused primarily on pharmaceuticals and medical devices and her clients ranged from large pharmaceuticals companies to individual inventors. In 2011, she joined Strellis Firm Law Offices in order to focus on representing individuals who have suffered injuries and deserve a voice in a system that sometimes turns a deaf ear. Carrie grew up in Elkhart, Indiana, the Recreational Vehicle capitol of the world. Her Dad started out in the RV business routing out wheel wells and worked his way up to the top levels of management. He taught her by example how to work hard, and she employs his methods in her law practice today. Carrie’s mom was a homemaker who taught Carrie the importance of giving back to your community. Carrie tries to do this through volunteering for Project Night Night (www.projectnightnight.org) a group that donates books, blankets and stuffed animals to homeless kids, coaching AYSO soccer, and volunteering for her kids’ schools. Carrie graduated from Elkhart Central High School, and then from Duke University with a degree in Biology. She received her law degree from Indiana University in 1998. Having attended both Duke and IU, Carrie is a rabid basketball fan, but still has a tough time going left when on the court herself. She leaves most of the basketball playing to her kids, Josh and Maggie, and to her husband, Matt, who coaches their West Cook YMCA teams. Carrie’s youngest daughter, Cate, is too young to have hit the court quite yet.

Elizabeth Gallagher

Since 1996, Elizabeth has made it her mission to help clients put together effective and thoughtful Estate Plans. The Wills and Trusts she creates accomplish many goals, but concentrate on passing estates to loved ones as quickly and inexpensively as possible. Elizabeth has created plans to save clients and their families from hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes and the costly and lengthy process of probate. While Estate Planning may not be anyone’s favorite subject and thoughts of it have many “running for the hills”, Elizabeth prides herself in creating a comfortable environment where clients feel at ease talking about a not so easy topic. Clients who have delayed the process of creating a plan almost always say afterwards that it was much easier than they thought it would be, and if they knew it would be so painless, they would have done it much sooner! Clients often comment that they appreciate Elizabeth talking to them in “plain English” and not overwhelming them with a lot of legal jargon. Elizabeth has prepared over 2500 estate plans in Illinois and Missouri, and has handled the administration of over 150 estates and trusts. She has delivered more than 100 seminars on estate planning to many groups, including retired federal employee groups, civic organizations and religious groups. Elizabeth graduated from Parks College of St. Louis University in 1992 with a BS in Aviation Administration and from Southern Illinois University School of Law in 1995. She lives in Columbia, Illinois with her husband Don and her children, Cara and Ryan.