Leah Nolan

Attorney in Chicago, IL

Leah won her first case before she stepped foot into law school. After a foray in the courtroom as a pro se litigant, she knew she wanted to be an attorney. Loving the challenge of complex litigation, she has focused her practice on medical & legal malpractice, casualty/tort litigation, construction, product liability, toxic tort, and Workers' Compensation since becoming an Associate attorney with the firm in 2021. Less than one year into her practice, she second-chaired a trial in a medical malpractice case. She successfully defended a pain management doctor against a $2.5 million medical malpractice verdict, receiving a favorable outcome.

Before Leah attended law school, she called Chicago home for eight years but moved to the quieter western suburbs when she began law school in 2018. Before entering the legal world, Leah spent six years working as a content editor, brainstorming and implementing creative digital design solutions for the world's first online luxury consignment brand. Leah brings her leadership skills, creative drive, and a keen eye for detail to law practice.

She excelled at Northern Illinois College of Law and graduated summa cum laude, ranked second in her class. While in school, she won numerous awards, including the Lenny B. Mandell Moot Court Competition Triple Crown Award (Champion, Best Oralist, and Best Brief), the Daniel S. Reynolds Achievement Award, the Hellene & Edward Fioretti Award, the Justin Pettway Scholarship Award, the Hope Moller Scholarship Award, and the Outstanding Women & Gender Advocacy Student Award. Additionally, she took second place in the American Bar Association's Regional Client Counseling Competition while in school.

As someone who is never afraid to be the first to try something new, Leah worked as the first-ever in-house law clerk at the Animal Legal Defense Fund before joining Heyl Royster as a Summer Associate in 2020. In her free time, she enjoys dining out and spending time with her husband and her dog, Clue.