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Thomas A. Demetrio will deliver 2005 Chicago-Kent commencement address

Noted civil trial lawyer and 1973 Chicago-Kent graduate to speak at
May 22 ceremonies

CHICAGO–May 3, 2005 –- Attorney Thomas A. Demetrio, of the Chicago law firm of Corboy & Demetrio, will deliver the commencement address at Chicago-Kent College of Law’s 2005 ceremonies on Sunday, May 22, at 2 p.m. Commencement exercises will be held in the Lakeside Center at McCormick Place, 2301 S. Lake Shore Drive, in Chicago. More than 300 students are expected to receive Juris Doctor degrees.

Demetrio completed his undergraduate education at the University of Notre Dame. In 1973, he earned his J.D. degree from Chicago-Kent. He was president of the Chicago-Kent Alumni Association in 1988-89, and has served as a member of the law school’s Board of Overseers since 1992. Demetrio received Chicago-Kent’s Alumni Merit Award in 1989, the Professional Achievement Award in 1990, and the Distinguished Service Award in 2000.

He is a past president of the Chicago Bar Association and the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. Demetrio is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and the Inner Circle of Advocates.

During his tenure as president of the Chicago Bar Association, Demetrio established the Lend-A-Hand program to support and fund mentoring programs for disadvantaged youth in the Chicago area. The program was recently renamed to honor the late federal judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz, a 1925 graduate of what is now Chicago-Kent. Demetrio serves on several other charitable and educational boards. He has done extensive teaching and lecturing worldwide in the field of trial techniques and has written numerous continuing legal education articles in the field of civil litigation.

Demetrio has been listed in Best Trial Lawyers in America since its inception in 1987. In 1990, he was named by the National Law Journal as one of the nation’s top ten trial lawyers. Since 2003, he has been voted by his peers to be among the top 5 percent of all lawyers in Illinois in a poll conducted by the Leading Lawyers Network. This year his peers selected him to be among the top 100 of all lawyers in Illinois in a poll conducted by Super Lawyers.