Mary N. Nielsen

Mary N. Nielsen focuses her practice on the defense of health-care providers, including physicians, nurses, nurse anesthetists, and physical, occupational, and speech therapists. She defends clients in a wide variety of specialties, including:

• critical care
• emergency room medicine
• infectious disease
• internal medicine
• neurology
• orthopedics
• pulmonary
• radiology
• urology

She also defends long-term care facilities and has significant experience defending not-for-profit agencies running residential and day programs for disabled and mentally ill adults and children, rehabilitation centers, and therapeutic day schools.

Ms. Nielsen has engaged in multiple mediations and settlement conferences. Her trial experience includes numerous first chair verdicts and spans multiple counties in Illinois.

Education

• Southern Illinois University School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude, 1993
• University of Illinois, B.A. in History, 1991

LAW SCHOOL HONORS/INVOLVEMENT

• National Moot Court team

Admissions & Affiliations

• Illinois
• Missouri
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

• Defense verdict. Represented cardiothoracic surgeon in medical malpractice case where patient died during surgery for lung cancer. Sought: $7,300,000; awarded $0. (Estate of Ronald Green, deceased v. Dr. Norman Snow)
• Defense verdict. Represented third-year otolaryngology surgery resident in medical malpractice case alleging child given medication overdose during a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. Sought: $7,000,000; awarded $0. (Zaki Mohamed, minor v. Dr. Nadia Gul Mohyuddin)
• Defense verdict. Represented hospital, two residents, and a physician’s assistant in medical malpractice case alleging pregnant woman died from insulin overdose. Sought: $2,500,000. Awarded $0. (Estate of Ella Jackson, deceased, Estate of Baby Girl Jackson, deceased minor v. Michael Reese Hospital)
• Plaintiff verdict. Represented medical center in medical malpractice case alleging negligence in plaintiff’s wheelchair fall inside hospital’s transport van. Sought: $2,000,000; awarded $350,000. (Estate of Ferdinand Timmreck, deceased v. Resurrection Medical Center)
• Defense verdict. Represented physical therapist in medical malpractice case involving a broken leg during transfer at a nursing home. Sought: $1,000,000; awarded $0. (Estate of Alice Yerbick, deceased v Alden-Northmoor Rehabilitation & Health Care Center Inc., Tammy Palese, Dr. Stanislaw Maslanka)

View More

• Plaintiff verdict. Represented hospital in medical malpractice case alleging failure to timely diagnose infant’s necrotic bowel. Sought $10,250,000; awarded $2,970,000. (Estate of Isabella Kitsen Zormelo, deceased minor v Edward Hospital, Dr. Michael J. Fitzgerald, Dr. Leslie Farolan, Dr. Deanna L. Holleman-Duray, Dr. Robert F. Covert, Dr. Rajeev S. Dixit, DuPage Neonatology Associates S.C.)

View Less

Events & Speaking Engagements

• Speaks at Grand Rounds, staff and resident meetings, and at-risk management conferences on:
  • Consents
  • Anatomy of a malpractice case
  • Strategies to avoid or mitigate litigation exposure
  • Current developments in case law
  • Litigation trends