CHICAGO _ Thomas Demetrio, the Chicago personal injury lawyer who negotiated an undisclosed settlement with United Airlines in its passenger-dragging incident, is no stranger to holding airlines accountable.
Well-known in legal circles, Demetrio, 69, has been in the spotlight since the April 9 episode in which smartphone video captured Dr. David Dao being violently dragged off a United Express flight. Chicago aviation security officers at O'Hare International Airport removed him to make room for late-arriving airline employees headed to Louisville, Ky.
Speaking for Dao and calling out United, Demetrio held a nationally televised news conference, appeared on NBC's "Today" show and became a trending search on Google.
Demetrio grew up in the Chicago suburb of Evanston and attended the University of Notre Dame and Illinois Institute of Technology's Chicago-Kent College of Law. He landed a job with personal injury lawyer Philip Corboy's firm upon graduating from law school in 1973 and became a named partner in 1982, according to the firm's website.
Demetrio has carved out a successful record of aviation litigation that has included well-known crash victims and record settlements. His cases include representing a widow whose husband was killed with musician Jim Croce in a 1973 Louisiana plane crash as well as the family of musician Stevie Ray Vaughan, who died in a 1990 helicopter crash in East Troy, Wis.
In 1999, Demetrio obtained a $25.2 million settlement on behalf of the family of Pittsburgh businessman Marshall Berkman, who was killed in the 1994 crash of a USAir flight. All 132 passengers aboard the Boeing 737, which originated in Chicago, died in the crash outside Pittsburgh.
On April 13, four days after video of Dao's forcible removal from a United plane went viral, Demetrio held a news conference broadcast live on multiple networks, updating Dao's medical condition and decrying United's mistreatment of its passengers. He warned that a lawsuit was "probably" in the works.
"For a long time airlines _ United in particular _ have bullied us," Demetrio said. "Just treat us with respect, make us feel like you really care."
A week later, an American Airlines flight attendant was captured on video arguing with passengers before takeoff of a flight from San Francisco to Dallas after he reportedly yanked a stroller from a mother holding her baby. Demetrio appeared on NBC's "Today" show Monday to announce he was also representing the still-unidentified American passenger.
