Press Release

CHICAGO, MAY 13, 2009 — Winston & Strawn LLP announced today that second year litigation associate Sean G. Wieber was named Young Lawyer of the Year for 2008-2009 by the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA). This is the first time that the ISBA has ever chosen a lawyer with less than two years of practice for this award. The award will be conferred on Friday, June 26, 2009 during an awards luncheon as part of the ISBA's Summer Meeting in Fontana, Wisc. The award — created in 2000 — is meant to encourage young lawyers to participate actively in their profession and in community affairs.

Wieber was recently the subject of media coverage as a result of writing and getting passed into law Illinois House Bill 1279, also called the R.A.W. Initiative, which requires outdoor athletic facilities in Illinois to have automated external defillibrators (AEDs) on-hand and trained users present. The legislation was based on Wieber's experience watching his Northwestern University football teammate and friend, Rashidi Wheeler, die after collapsing during a team practice. The bill was named in Wheeler's honor. Wieber drafted the legislation as part of a law school assignment, but then — through Illinois Representative Dan Burke — the legislation was introduced in the Illinois General Assembly. It was passed in the House and Senate, and signed by the Governor with the support of then Lieutenant Governor Patrick Quinn and the American Heart Association.

Wieber was also appointed as a special assistant attorney general by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan where he, along with Governor James R. Thompson, successfully obtained the dismissal of a civil rights action against then Governor Rod Blagojevich on the ground of legislative immunity. He currently serves on a multi-lawyer team defending Ernst & Young, and also as the youngest member of a multi-lawyer team defending William Cellini in United States v Blagojevich.

Wieber has had tremendous success in his pro bono efforts as well. He, along with Winston associate Kyle De Jong, obtained a sentence of time served after arrest plus six months for a Class X offender who could have been sentenced to a 30-year term. Wieber, with other Winston lawyers, also represented a retired Chicago school teacher plaintiff in a §1983 civil rights case in the District Court, Northern District of Illinois, and obtained a settlement without trial that was higher than that obtained by other plaintiffs. Wieber also is one of the Winston lawyers representing the Ark — a Chicago social service agency for distressed members of the Chicago Jewish Community — in a fraud suit in the Circuit Court of Cook County.

"It's hard to imagine a young lawyer packing all of these achievements…into his first two years of practice, when many lawyers have not measured up to these achievements after years of practice," wrote Winston & Strawn senior chairman Governor James R. Thompson in his nomination letter of Wieber to the ISBA.

Dan Webb, chairman of Winston & Strawn, said that Wieber's selection "demonstrates the ability and talent that Winston is able to attract to its ranks and the opportunities that even young lawyers have to participate in major cases at Winston."

Wieber received his juris doctor, with high honors, from Chicago-Kent College of Law where he was elected to the Order of the Coif. He earned his bachelor's degree from Northwestern University, where he was a starting free safety on the 2000 Big Ten Championship team and was also an Academic All-Big Ten scholar athlete.