In an historic ceremony, GWC was recently honored by the Mexican government as a designated law firm for Mexican-Americans and Mexican nationals in the State of Illinois to consult with related to personal injury and workers’ compensation matters.
The Mexican government is represented locally by its Consul General, Eduardo Arnal. Consul General Arnal represents Mexico’s Consulate system throughout the state of Illinois, the southern half of Wisconsin and the northern half of Indiana. Chicago is the largest city in the Consul General’s jurisdiction and being selected to represent Mexican-Americans and Mexican nationals in Chicago and throughout Illinois is a tremendous honor for the partners, attorneys and staff of GWC.
GWC has had a long-standing relationship with the Hispanic community. Named partner, and individually designated counsel, Louis C. Cairo, has handled catastrophic injury and death cases for individuals and families of Mexican descent for most of his 28 year career. This designation is a career-dream come true. Firm partner, Lawrence T. Ruder, has not only devoted his career to assisting individuals in the Hispanic community, he has established scholarships for Hispanic law students in need of financing for their education, established free legal clinics for Spanish-speaking members of churches in Lake, DuPage and Cook Counties, and has provided hundreds of hours of free legal services to indigent Hispanic families. Individually designated attorney, Raul Rodriguez, of GWC concentrates his practice on representing injured workers of this respected community. As an Hispanic attorney, Raul epitomizes the hard work and success of Hispanics in this country, and is an invaluable part of our relationship with the Consulate. And finally, for several years, GWC has participated in Labor Rights Week: an event that brings together community organizations, government agencies and attorneys in various fields with the common goal of encouraging Hispanic workers in Illinois to exercise their work-place rights.Several lawyers and firms were considered before this honor was bestowed upon our law firm. Given the fact that we are the largest injury and workers’ compensation law firm in the state, we had an advantage over many of the tens of thousands of lawyers in Illinois. But it was our prior success for our Hispanic clients that made the biggest difference to the Mexican Consulate. Our recent successes include:
- $10,000,000.00 – death of a Mexican construction worker who fell in elevator pit
- $4,500,000.00 – death of Mexican construction worker when wall blew over
- $2,000,000.00 – verdict against Waukegan Police Department for death of Honduran
- $2,000,000.00 – partial loss of an arm to Mexican worker in auto accident
and numerous other 7-figure and high 6-figure cases.We cherish our firm’s relationship with the Mexican community. Our formal relationship with the government of Mexico, via this venerable designation, is an accomplishment that we will proudly honor throughout our careers. Few attorneys in the country, or world, can claim this achievement. We are truly humbled and honored by this designation, and are very motivated to show our appreciation to the Consul General and continued dedication to the Mexican community with the highest level of legal representation that we can offer.