Small group of lawyers handles claims

When city workers get hurt on the job, they usually turn to a handful of lawyers tied to City Hall.

And the city often fights back by hiring lawyers with ties to Ald. Edward M. Burke, chairman of the City Council Finance Committee, which has sole authority to settle workers compensation claims against the city.

Injured city workers most often turn to Frederic Krol Sr., who went to prison for five months in the 1960s for bribing a federal prosecutor and temporarily surrendered his law license.

The city has paid more than $65 million to settle 3,750 workers comp cases Krol has filed since 1980, records show.

Krol, 70, has long ties to Chicago's Democratic Machine, sources said.

His law partner, Salvatore Bongiorno, is former chairman of what's now the Illinois Workers Compensation Commission, which must OK injury claims. Krol's former law partner, James DeMunno, has been on the commission for three years.

The other lawyers injured city workers most often hire are George J. Cullen, Joseph J. Spingola and Martin F. Healy. Each has filed more than 1,000 cases for city workers since 1980 and won more than $30 million.

Spingola, 64, has filed hundreds of cases against the city, many while chairing the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals. Appointed by Mayor Daley in 1989, Spingola resigned in 2004. He said City Hall agreed he could represent injured city workers while on the zoning board. He said clients knew he was a city official. Many Spingola clients are in Laborers' International Union Local 1001, which his late father ran in the 1970s.

Cullen, 71, formerly chaired the Chicago Plan Commission and was a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Healy, 62, worked in the city Law Department under Mayor Jane Byrne.

Burke usually has the law department defend workers comp claims. But often he hires outside attorneys. His staff declined to discuss how claims are handled, first asking for written questions, then not responding. Among subjects Burke's staff wouldn't discuss were the law firms hired and how much they were paid.

The Hennessy & Roach law firm has defended the city in at least 776 cases since 1992. The firm has been paid more than $1.4 million since 2004. The firm's lawyers have given more than $23,000 to Burke's campaign funds in the last 10 years. A partner in the firm, Edward Hennessy, is married to Catharine Hennessy, a city official who led a patronage army of city workers.

Burke has also hired attorney Michael Pedicone to handle at least 81 cases. Pedicone has been paid more than $300,000 since 2004. He is president of SDI Security Inc. Burke was an SDI corporate officer.