Carla Colaianni Named by Crain’s Chicago Business To its 2024 Notable Women in Law

CHICAGO, IL, February 26, 2024 – Carla Colaianni, a plaintiff’s trial lawyer and co-chair of the medical negligence practice area at Smith LaCien LLP, was named by Crain’s Chicago Business to its 2024 Notable Women in Law. She was featured in the Feb. 20 issue of the weekly magazine.

The 141 lawyers who were selected practice law across a wide range of practice areas. They serve as mentors for other women in their firms and bring their expertise to their communities and nonprofits.

Carla represents clients in complex medical negligence and birth injury cases in both the trial and appellate courts. In its story, Crain’s wrote that Colaianni currently represents children injured by unsafe baby formulas and birth trauma. She was part of a legal team that recently resolved over 800 cases for victims of ethylene oxide exposure in Willowbrook. She mentors Allyson Cox, an associate lawyer at the firm, and they work together on cases as well as on projects as members of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois.

After receiving her law degree from DePaul University College of Law, Cum Laude, in 2007, she spent several years practicing in her home state of New York at a leading plaintiff’s law firm where she handled complex birth injury cases and most of the firm’s child sexual abuse cases. She returned to Chicago in 2021 to join Smith LaCien.

Smith LaCien LLP concentrates in catastrophic personal injury, medical malpractice, wrongful death, trucking litigation, birth injuries and mass torts. The firm has a lengthy track record of achieving exceptional results for clients, with more than $2.5 billion in verdicts and settlements, and over 100 cases with results of at least $1 million each.