Steve Pearson featured in Leading Lawyers Magazine Business Issue

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Effectively, Pearson served as defendant’s
counsel, plaintiff’s counsel, and appellate
attorney on this single case. This sort of
dynamic litigation is a typical requirement of the
“messes” Pearson handles, and in this
particular instance it made law in Arizona.
“Steve is a…go-to attorney on a complex
case that requires knowledge and strategy,”
says Alex Jivan of Farmers Insurance. “Many
attorneys stop at knowledge. It's creative
strategy and respect of the community that get
you results.”
Pearson’s ability to understand and respect
the legal community in different locales proved
particularly important in a reinsurance fraud
case he handled for billionaire investor Diane
Hendricks, in which a reinsurance company in
Bermuda offered one of the Hendricks’
insurance subsidiaries a very complicated
captive reinsurance arrangement, which it then
secretly re-wrote to avoid losses.
The case took him from federal courts in
Chicago, Michigan, and California to the U.S.
Supreme Court, the courts of Bermuda, and
now the Privy Council of the United Kingdom,
the British equivalent of the Supreme Court.
When Pearson worked out a budget for the
case, it was so expensive that he discouraged
Hendricks from pursuing action, but his client
insisted and will likely prevail in court.
Hendricks, who started Hendricks Holding
Co. with her husband, Kenneth, in 1982, is one
of only four women on the Forbes “400 Richest
People in America” list and earned her fortune
without a college education. Therefore, she is
very careful about whom she trusts. “The
integrity of Steve Pearson is impeccable… I
mean I like the man… Compared to other
attorneys I’ve seen in a courtroom, Steve does
it with such respect… I like his style.”
Pearson applies his strategy and style even
to the mediations and alternative dispute
resolutions that often replace traditional trials in
construction cases.
“Even though he’s not the mediator, he’s the
one who’s orchestrating what’s going on,” notes
Davis, the MBT partner. “He’s good at finding a
way to have… many different personalities
come together and reach a solution.”
“a man of deep and abiding character.”
Pearson grew up in a blue collar family in
Villa Park, the son of an electrician and a
homemaker. He worked his way through the
University of Minnesota and DePaul College of
Law by running his own janitorial business and
later by serving under a 711 license as a
prosecutor.
Assisting his father during the summers as a
boy, he realized that he never wanted to be
“under the thumb of other people.”
The desire to be free from constraints
attracted him to the vastness of civil litigation.
It also ignited his love for airplanes. He began
taking flying lessons in 1992 and obtained his
flying license in 1994. He has used his
Beechcraft Bonanza A-36 for most of his legal
trips, and in 1999, he began volunteering both
his plane and his time for the non-profit Angel
Flight Central, which provides free flights to the
needy, particularly those who must fly long
distances for medical care.
Pearson has completed 28 flights for the
organization, including the evacuation of a family
from Baton Rouge in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina. This, according to Executive Director
Don Sumple, “puts him in top 10 percent of
Angel Flight pilots during our 17-year history.”
Pearson is now chair of Angel Flight
Central’s board of directors and has raised
more than $80,000 for the organization though
a golf classic that he sponsors.
Pearson’s son and daughter began
accompanying him on flights while they were
still young. Both children are pilots and are
pursuing degrees in medicine. They inherited
their love of science from their mother, Angela,
who studied biomedical engineering.
Pearson’s sister, Cheryl Hansen, notes that
her parents were very proud of Pearson’s
successful legal career, “but I really don’t think
they grasped the whole magnitude of what he
had done.”
According to Pearson’s brother Rick, they
had a fuller appreciation for his flying hobby.
“Dad loved every chance he got to go up flying
with Steve.” ■
Blue Collar Roots
As Pearson’s client base has expanded, he
has continued to take pro bono assignments
from the federal trial bar in Chicago. Currently,
he is representing a Stateville prisoner who
alleges that the prison’s acting medical director
denied him care.
Pearson also evaluates bar candidates for
the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on
Character and Fitness. He was appointed by
Justice Robert Thomas, who calls Pearson as
This article originally appeared in Leading Lawyers Magazine—Business Edition for 2012 and has been reprinted with permission. © 2012 Law Bulletin Publishing Co.