MDR LAW - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Founding Member
- Member of the Attorneys & Staff
- of Counsel
- Member of ISBA
Albert Durkin is a founding member of MDR Law with over 40 years of experience, currently serving of Counsel to the firm since 2019. While seasoned in all types of personal injury litigation, he has distinguished himself in the area of complex traumatic brain injury and psychological injuries resulting from exposure to trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Mr. Durkin, along with his MDR LAW LLC partner, Joe Miroballi, received a $22 million dollar verdict on behalf of a 42-year-old construction worker who sustained a traumatic brain injury as a result of an accident that took place on the premises of McCormick Place. In the spring of 2008, Mr. Durkin negotiated a seven-figure resolution for a client who was diagnosed with PTSD following her escape from a fire that occurred in October 2003 at the 69 W. Washington County Building. Mr. Durkin was involved integrally in the resolution of the totality of the claims that ultimately settled on the eve of trial for $100 million. In the winter of 2019, while preparing for trial in Will County along with MDR partner Joe Miroballi and associate Lauren Levin, was instrumental in negotiating an $18 million dollar settlement in a medical malpractice case involving birth trauma which at the time was the largest medical malpractice settlement in history of that county.
An active member of the Illinois legal community, Mr. Durkin is a member of ISBA's Founder's Circle and President's Club along with a Silver Fellow in the IBF. Mr. Durkin held 2 terms on the Board of Governors including as Secretary in his second term, and 5 terms in ISBA General Assembly where he currently holds office. Mr. Durkin is a member of the ISBA Judicial Evaluation Committee since 2000 and currently chairs it's Appellate Panel. In 2020, Mr. Durkin was appointed to ISBA's prestigious Bench and Bar Section Council where he currently serves. Additionally, Mr. Durkin serves on the Illinois Trial Lawyer's Association's Medical Malpractice Committee.
A frequent speaker on a variety of subjects, he is consistently published in legal journals, including a feature in the 2011 Leading Lawyers Magazine - Consumer Edition. In addition to his involvement with the ISBA, Mr. Durkin holds a membership in the Chicago Bar Association and the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. Elected as a Leading Lawyer in Tort by the Leading Lawyer Network and is a member of their Board of Advisors. In addition to being a Leading Lawyer, Mr. Durkin has been named a Super Lawyer by Super Lawyer Network. He holds an AV rating from the Martindale-Hubble Company confirming his status as a highly respected and ethical member of the bar. The AV rating signifies legal abilities of the highest standard and professional ethics that are unquestioned.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Attorney
- Member of the Attorneys & Staff
- MDR As a Paralegal
Florina Bandula is an attorney with strong work ethic and sense of compassion. When it comes to clients, she utilizes her skills and knowledge to zealously represent them. Florina prides herself on approaching every client's case with the dedication and care she would offer to her nearest and dearest friends and family.
Florina originally joined MDR as a paralegal. As a member of the team, she gained valuable experience working closely with our lawyers - that is how she developed a passion for helping clients after a catastrophic injury. She attended law school while remarkably working full time for MDR until she obtained an externship with a federal judge. Florina returned to MDR as a law clerk at the end of the externship and was involved in a variety of cases, including medical malpractice, premises liability, product liability, construction litigation, and multidistrict litigation (MDL).
Born and raised in Romania, Florina earned her law degree from Loyola University School of Law in 2021. While in law school, Florina obtained an externship with the Hon. Judge Matthew F. Kennelly at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, where she was assigned a great deal of writing responsibilities, ranging from internal memoranda for the judge to first drafts of memorandum dispositions in pending civil cases. During law school, she also served as a legal extern in the office of U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Florina graduated law school cum laude and was one of the Associate Editors for the Loyola University Chicago International Law Review during her final year. She also received a CALI award for International Arbitration: Public and Private. Prior to law school, Florina graduated with honors from Roosevelt University with a B.A. in Criminal Justice.
While in her first year of practice, Florina has second chaired a Medical malpractice / Wrongful Death case resulting in a $2,670,000 verdict and successfully arbitrated several cases. The firm has shown incredible confidence in her abilities as she continues on her part to be a talented trial attorney. In her short career, Florina has helped the firm secure substantial verdicts and settlements for the clients:
$2,922,000 Construction Negligence settlement for a painter who fell from a second floor landing due to lack of guardrails. The worker sustained fractures to his spine. He died of unrelated causes three years after his fall.
$1,015,000 global settlement for a couple involved in a Motor Vehicle Accident after their vehicle was hit by a semi-truck.
$508,000 settlement in a Dram Shop / Auto case involving a young woman who was passenger in a car.
$500,000 settlement in a Medical Malpractice / Wrongful Death case for a 58 yr old man who committed suicide at home after being discharged from the hospital.
$219,000 settlement in an Auto-Pedestrian case for a woman who sustained soft injuries after she was struck by a vehicle in the parking lot.
$150,000 settlement in a Medical Malpractice case where the treating physicians failed to timely diagnose and treat an infection;
$65,000 settlement in a Premises Liability case after a slip and fall incident.
Florina is fluent in English and Romanian, and conversational in Spanish.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Attorneys & Staff
- Paralegal
Associates degree from Devry University, and five years of experience as a paralegal.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Attorneys & Staff
- Managing Paralegal
- Managing Paralegal / Emerson College
Job Titles:
- Member of the Attorneys & Staff
- Law Clerk
Job Titles:
- Member of the Attorneys & Staff
- Paralegal
- Paralegal / Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Job Titles:
- Member of the Attorneys & Staff
- Partner
Since 1979, Joseph J. Miroballi has been a zealous advocate for victims of wrongdoing, particularly for individuals who have been seriously injured as a result of medical malpractice, product liability, and construction accidents. In addition to trying cases successfully to verdict on behalf of those individuals, Joe has also successfully tried cases involving police misconduct and auto liability. His cases against major medical institutions in the Chicago area, including Cook County Hospital, led to much-needed reform in the way prescription medications are dispensed and administered to patients.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Member of the Attorneys & Staff
Josh Rappaport joined MDR LAW LLC as an associate attorney in 2022. Prior to joining MDR LAW LLC, Josh represented injury victims at a civil litigation firm where he successfully first-chaired jury trials and arbitration hearings.
Josh previously served as a law clerk at MDR LAW LLC and is thrilled to re-join as an attorney. Josh has experience working on a variety of cases including motor vehicle collisions, premises liability, construction accidents, sexual abuse cases, contract disputes, wrongful death, medical malpractice, insurance coverage issues, products liability and more. Notably, Josh recently obtained a million dollar full insurance policy settlement just before trial after a client suffered life-changing injuries due to negligent upkeep at a convenience store.
Josh prides himself in assisting injury victims with putting their lives back together after serious accidents due to negligence. He recognizes that his clients may be going through some of the worst times of their lives and utilizes the civil litigation system to help injury victims put their lives back together. He listens to his clients and seeks to provide them with the best possible outcome on every case.
Josh graduated Magna Cum Laude from DePaul University College of Law. In law school, he earned the CALI Excellence for the Future Award in both Torts and Trial Advocacy. Additionally, he earned membership to the Order of the Coif for graduating in the top 10% of his graduating class. He completed his undergraduate studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, majoring in English and obtaining a Pre-Law Certificate
Josh is co-author of the Premises Liability Guide (2021 Edition), which is an overview resource on Illinois law regarding Premises Liability.
A native of Grayslake, Illinois, Josh was a multiple time all-area basketball player at Grayslake Central High-School and continued his athletic career at St. Norbert College.
Job Titles:
- Paralegal
- Paralegal / Calumet College of St. Joseph
Job Titles:
- Member of the Attorneys & Staff
- Partner
Since joining the firm as a law clerk in 2006, Lauren (Levin) Budz has garnered experience in a broad range of areas from pre-litigation to trial. Over the past 15 years as an attorney, Lauren has first and second-chair experience, trying cases in the Law Divisions of Cook County and surrounding counties, including complicated medical malpractice cases. Additionally, she has successfully arbitrated and mediated numerous cases successfully on behalf of the firm's clients.
Lauren was elevated to partner in 2018. Notably, in 2019, she was a part of the trial team that obtained a record-breaking-high medical negligence settlement in the Circuit Court of Will County. In her most recent trial victory, Lauren and partner Martin J. Lucas won a $4.5 Million jury verdict in a police pursuit case against the City of Chicago.
Lauren's post-graduate education not only includes a law degree from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law, but also a Master's Degree in Bioethics from the Medical College of Wisconsin. She earned a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Lauren is married to a fellow Plaintiff's attorney. They live in the north shore suburbs with their two young boys and German Shepherd Louie.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Attorneys & Staff
- of Counsel
Leslie J. Rosen concentrates her practice in civil appeals, litigation support and guardianship matters. She was initially trained by the great trial and appellate lawyer, Leonard M. Ring, and has been privileged to work on some of the most important civil appeals in the State of Illinois, beginning with Bernier v. Burris, which reviewed the constitutionality of the 1985 Illinois Tort Reform Act and declared medical review panels to be unconstitutional.
Leslie has an unusually broad range of experience. She has worked with the leading personal injury attorneys in the State to preserve verdicts for catastrophically injured plaintiffs, i.e. Barton v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co. (affirmed $29.6 million verdict for acclaimed violinist who lost a leg in a train accident). Significantly, she has also been involved in major appeals on behalf of insurers, i.e. Illinois Cent. R. Co. v. Accident and Cas. Co. of Winterthur (affirmed ruling that insurer not liable for $10 million insurance coverage claim). Further still, she has represented individuals wrongly charged with torts, i.e. Doe v. Dilling (reversed $2 million verdict for woman who sued the parents of her deceased fiancé who did not tell her that their adult, competent son had AIDS). The breadth of her experience on both the plaintiff and defense side of cases gives Leslie the ability to see a problem from many angles and devise winning strategies for her clients.
Prior to becoming a lawyer, in 1981, Leslie worked as a hospital social worker for Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston, MA and her experience and training have helped her serve as an effective advocate for individuals requiring guardianship as well. Leslie is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell. This rating is a reflection of her expertise, experience, integrity and overall professional excellence. The AV rating is only given to attorneys with preeminent legal ability.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Attorneys & Staff
- Paralegal
Liz has 25 years of experience being a plaintiff's personal injury paralegal.
Education
DePaul University-Chicago, B.A. (in Political Science), 1997
Job Titles:
- Member of the Attorneys & Staff
- Partner
Marty Lucas began his career as a trial attorney representing victims of negligence in 1991 after graduating from IIT/Chicago Kent College of Law in Chicago. He was the winner of the American Jurisprudence Award for Torts while a student at Kent. He is an experienced trial lawyer who recognizes the great privilege and responsibility he has to represent victims of negligence.
Mr. Lucas takes pride in having tried cases to verdict in jurisdictions throughout the state. He has tried and argued cases in state court throughout the northern half of Illinois, the federal trial courts, the Illinois Human Rights Commission, and the Cook County Human Rights Commission. These trials have included medical malpractice, construction negligence, automobile collisions, sexual harassment and discrimination claims, and other personal injury matters. In addition to his trial work, he has argued cases on appeal before the Illinois Supreme Court, multiple Illinois Appellate Courts, and the 7 th Circuit Court of Appeals.
He has been selected as an "Illinois Super Lawyer" every year since 2012 and has consistently achieved an AV-Preeminent rating with Martindale-Hubbell. Both of these distinctions are based on the review of his peers in the legal community. He has spoken at legal seminars about the status of construction negligence law in the state of Illinois.
He has obtained substantial awards for his clients in a range of personal injury cases, including multi-million dollar recoveries in medical malpractice and construction negligence cases.
Job Titles:
- Controller
- Member of the Attorneys & Staff
- Controller / Marquette University
Job Titles:
- Member of the Attorneys & Staff
- Partner
"You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don't make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can't take their eyes off of you." - Maya Angelou.
This quote embodies my approach to the law. I genuinely love my job, every aspect of it. I have made a career helping people who have been injured, and the families of those who have been killed, get the justice that they deserve. I am lucky to be associated with others who have dedicated their lives and considerable skill to helping those who have suffered due to others' negligence. Over the last 35 years I have developed and refined those skills and, along with the rest of the team at MDR, bring them to bear for our clients.
Job Titles:
- Founding Partner
- Managing Partner
- Member of the Attorneys & Staff
Scott H. Rudin is a founding partner and trial lawyer in the Illinois law firm of Miroballi Durkin Rudin Lucas & Rosenblum or MDR-Law. Scott has extensive experience in handling a variety of personal injury and wrongful death cases in the areas of transportation, product liability, construction, medical malpractice, and sexual abuse/assault.
Scott was honored as a 2024 Super Lawyer for his outstanding career with successful outcomes and a dedication to excellence. He was also recognized as a Leading Lawyer, a distinction given to only the top 5% of all Illinois lawyers by the Leading Lawyers Network. Scott was appointed and has served as an investigator and now a hearing officer for the Chicago Bar Association's Judicial Evaluation Committee. Scott holds a Preeminent AV rating from the Martindale Hubble Company which evidences his status as a highly respected and ethical member of the bar.
Scott has been married for 31 years and has sons. Scott recognizes and appreciates the tremendous responsibility entrusted to him by clients who have been placed in the most vulnerable positions of their life with no fault of their own. Scott, as a father of a special needs child, understands firsthand that every person deserves dignity and respect. Scott and his family have endowed the Kenny Rudin Deerfield High School Warrior Buddy Scholarship. In addition, Scott and his family partnered with the Deerfield Park District to design and endow the Kenny Rudin Playground with an emphasis on inclusive equipment for children and young adults with all abilities.
Scott has committed himself to multiple charitable endeavors over the past approximately 35 years including but not limited to; President of the Helping Hands Network; 100 Men Who Care 10% More; 2012 Keshet Banquet Dinner Honoree; Keshet Board of Trustees/Board of Directors; Keshet Co-Chair of the Kenny Rudin Benefit Concert; Vice President and Co-Founder of Special Kids Network; Board of Directors at the Equestrian Connection; Illinois Autism Task Force; and Deerfield Youth Baseball Association/Travel Team Manager (2008-2013).
Over the years, Scott has consulted and appeared in various media outlets regarding special needs matters and personal injury issues and cases. He has appeared in media outlets such as The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times, The Pioneer Press, The Whitney Reynolds PBS Show, iHeart Radio, WGN 720, ESPN 1000, 670 AM Score Values, WCPT 820 One More Good Idea, Yesterday Once More, and WRLR 98.3. Most importantly, Scott has achieved six and seven-figure settlements for special needs children who had been sexually abused/assaulted at school and/or religious institutions.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Attorneys & Staff
- Law Clerk