Aleen Tiffany

2008
Volunteer of the Year Award Recipient

The IDC thrives thanks to the efforts of our many volunteers who keep this association alive and growing. This year, the IDC is recognizing the outstanding contributions of a member who stepped forward to meet a critical need. Aleen R. Tiffany of Aleen R. Tiffany, P.C. is IDC’s 2008 Volunteer of the Year.

IDC Executive Director Sandra Wulf credits Aleen with rescuing this years’ Trial Academy. The seminar was placed in a precarious position when the program Chair decided to leave the practice of defense and resigned midway into the academy planning stage. Sandra recalls, "Aleen stepped forward without hesitation and took over. The program was great. It went off without a hitch.”

For former IDC President Jeffrey Hebrank, Aleen is the definition of the volunteerism. "Aleen’s contributions to the IDC are very special for a number of reasons. First of all, she is a small office practitioner. Those of us with larger offices find it to difficult enough to volunteer, but not Aleen. She has an exuberant personality that draws people to seek her help and counsel. And she never refuses a call for help. Her efforts to save the Trial Academy when our chair left the practice of defense were extraordinary. She knew that maintaining the Trial Academy's reputation was essential to IDC and she did not let it slip. Her willingness to help, her personality and professionalism make her very deserving of this award.”

Aleen joined the IDC in 1993, and was elected to the Board of Directors in 2005. In nominating Aleen for the Volunteer of the Year award, Executive Director Sandra Wulf noted Aleen’s remarkably upbeat personality and her consistent can-do attitude. "During the past year and a half, Aleen has chaired four of our highest profile programs, including the Trial Academy and the Basic Skills Seminars. Chairing just one program can require her to coordinate 25 or more speakers. It is an extraordinary commitment, but one she has made for the IDC repeatedly.”

She is a strong proponent of active involvement as a way to enhance a defense counsel’s career. Aleen explains, "I became involved in the IDC initially out of luck – many members of my firm were members and I followed suit. I quickly realized, though, the many benefits of membership and involvement in the IDC. Over the last 15 years, the IDC has helped me stay abreast of, and involved in, significant legal developments and changes, has helped me network and learn the industry itself, and to become a more visible member of the defense community.”

She sees other, more subtle benefits from her membership in IDC. "Involvement and work on the many legal issues affecting the defense community today, provides insight and a greater knowledge of those issues, as they effect litigation itself, and our ability to educate and assist clients affected, both in their resolution of matters and their planning processes.”

Aleen has taken part in long range planning strategies for IDC. She believes the association has to continue to assert the voice of the defense bar to legislators and to judges.

We asked Aleen to list what she believes are the most pressing challenges facing defense counsel today. Here are her thoughts.

"The challenges that face defense counsel today continue to be status in the legislature, a strong and highly active plaintiff’s bar, and changing economic times. Staying abreast of legal developments, and carving out creative means of handling those developments continues to be a challenge to all defense counsel. Knowledge of the law, its changes, and potential pitfalls is key to giving appropriate advice to clients, both in an effort to avoid litigation, and in handling litigation toward an appropriate and hopefully cost effective resolution."

"One significant challenge facing younger defense lawyers continues to be the difficulty in obtaining litigation experience. As the cost of litigation continues to rise, fewer and fewer smaller cases go to trial, robbing young lawyers of the opportunity to "get their feet wet” so to speak. In order to counter this difficulty, we must continue efforts to find opportunities for the younger lawyers in our firms to get that invaluable experience so that they might have the opportunities that older lawyers had, to develop their skills and become experts in the field.”

Before opening her own office, Aleen was a partner with the firm of O’Hagan, Smith & Amundsen where she served as Vice Chair of the firm’s Construction Practice Group. She is an experienced trial attorney who has successfully litigated a wide variety of matters throughout northern Illinois. During her 15 years of practice, the majority of which were with O’Hagan Smith & Amundsen, Aleen served as Managing Partner of that firm’s McHenry County office, co-chair of its Personal Lines Department and its Hiring Committee.

Aleen’s practice includes all aspects of civil litigation, with a primary focus on construction injury and contract litigation, risk management and risk transfer, and contract drafting. She regularly handles the day-to-day issues facing general and sub-contractors, design professionals, and insurers, including risk transfer and insurance coverage/tenders; contract evaluation and development; defense of catastrophic bodily injury claims; construction defect claims arising out of breach of contract, common law, and other warranty and statutory theories; and other contract, mechanics liens, and commercial matters faced regularly by corporate clients.

Follow this link to view all Previous Volunteer of the Year Award Recipients.