Evaluating Nursing Home Personal Injury Cases for Older Clients

Levin & Perconti welcomed Andrew (A.J.) Thut as an associate attorney in July 2013. Prior to his hiring, A.J. worked at a Waukegan personal injury firm where he prepared and handled all types of injury and malpractice cases from pre-suit investigation through trial.

A.J. brings with him experience and a passion for serving clients who have been seriously injury or killed as a result of negligence. “My father practiced as a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney in suburban Chicago, and from an early age I knew that I wanted to follow in his footsteps,” recalls A.J. “During law school, I spent two years clerking for a prominent personal injury firm in Chicago and this experience solidified my interest in representing victims of serious negligence. I have also realized that as an attorney I am uniquely positioned to assist people whose lives have been catastrophically altered when they have nowhere else to turn for help.”

As a student at the Loyola University School of Law, A.J. was named to the Dean’s List during his second and third years. In the summer of 2012, he did research for a Cook County Judge, and as a result had two articles published by the Illinois State Bar Association. Outside of the classroom, A.J. volunteered as a tutor for underprivileged children through the Highsight/Insight Mentor Program in Chicago.

A.J. grew up in Kildeer, IL where he was captain of the varsity soccer team at Stevenson High School. He played NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Player at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis before transferring to University of Illinois, where he majored in Political Science and was actively involved in his fraternity. A.J. now lives in Chicago, and in his free time enjoys playing golf, running and spending time with friends and family.

Daisy Ayllon joined Levin & Perconti as a law clerk in May 2013 and was hired as an Associate Attorney upon graduation from law school in May 2014.

During her time at Levin & Perconti, Daisy has worked on an array of cases, including a defamation lawsuit, a case involving a mental-health patient who was negligently discharged from a hospital and later jumped from her balcony and eventually died, and several other elder abuse, nursing home and medical malpractice cases. “This is an area of the law where one is constantly reminded of how the justice system impacts people in a very personal way,” she said. “Being a lawyer at this firm means that I can bring all my passion, compassion, and intellect to find legal solutions that quite literally change people's lives.”

Daisy attended Chicago-Kent College of Law on a full-tuition merit scholarship. While in law school, Daisy was named to the Dean’s List, served as an Editor of the Seventh Circuit Review, and was elected Vice President of the Moot Court Honor Society. She represented the school in the National Cultural Heritage Law and the Appellate Lawyers Association moot court competitions, winning third place for Best Brief. In 2014, Daisy was also recognized as the Society’s Coach of the Year for her commitment to and enthusiasm about coaching junior members.

Daisy earned her undergraduate degree in Journalism from Villanova University, where she was accepted into the Honors Program. Daisy served as a staff writer for The Villanovan and worked for ABC News in Charleston, South Carolina, where she taped, edited, and packaged stories for the 6 o’clock news; wrote stories for the website; and, from time to time, worked as the TV station’s assignment editor.

Passionate about service, Daisy traveled to a Native American reservation during a college break to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. After graduating from Villanova, Daisy bicycled from east coast to west coast (some 4,000 miles) to raise money for and awareness of the affordable-housing crisis in the United States, stopping along the way to help build houses with Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Together all across the country. To read more about Daisy's experience, click here.

Outside of the office, Daisy is involved in a number of bar associations, including the Women's Bar Association of Illinois and the Hispanic Lawyers Association. Recently, Daisy began volunteering with the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago's Lawyers In The Classroom program and serves as the firm's liaison and team leader.

Daisy was raised in small village near Toluca, Mexico--a city located about an hour southwest of Mexico City. She moved to the United States at the age of 13 and has worked tirelessly to become truly bilingual and bicultural.

David M. Godfrey, J.D., is a senior attorney to the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging in Washington DC. He is responsible for the ABA’s role in the Administration on Community Living funded National Center on Law and Elder Rights and for producing the ABA National Aging and Law Conference. David’s expertise includes supported decision making, advance care planning, health care decision making, legal service delivery, legal ethics, and LGBT aging. Prior to joining the Commission he was responsible for elder law programming at Access to Justice Foundation in Kentucky.

Mr. Godfrey earned his B.A. with honors at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, and his J.D. cum laude from the University Of Louisville School Of Law in Kentucky.