Emily E. Dory

Biography

Emily E. Dory is an associate at Donohue Brown who concentrates her practice in professional negligence defense, institutional negligence defense, and product liability and commercial litigation defense.

Since becoming an attorney in 2016, Ms. Dory has successfully tried jury trials to verdict serving as both first and second chair before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and in the Circuit Court of Cook County.  Ms. Dory has also obtained dismissals and prevailed on motions for summary judgment and taken and defended depositions of professionals, lay witnesses, and expert witnesses.

As former counsel for the City of Chicago, Ms. Dory specialized in defending the City of Chicago, and its employees, against allegations of civil rights violations, including lawsuits alleging violations of Section 1983, Section 1981, and the First Amendment. Ms. Dory was involved in nearly 100 federal civil rights cases where she won multiple motions to dismiss and summary judgments in favor of her clients throughout her tenure.

Ms. Dory graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law in 2016.  While at Illinois, Ms. Dory served as Editor in Chief of the Journal of Law, Technology and Policy, and actively participated in the clinics at the College of Law. In the Civil Litigation Clinic, Ms. Dory served as a student attorney and senior student attorney representing indigent individuals in employment discrimination claims, bankruptcy proceedings, and other complex civil litigation before the Champaign County Circuit Court.  Ms. Dory successfully tried two cases during her third year of law school, giving both the opening and closing arguments as a student attorney, and winning favorable verdicts for her clients.

Ms. Dory was also one of four Illinois students selected to represent Illinois on the Frederick Green National Moot Court. During her third year, Ms. Dory was selected as best oralist for her graduating Illinois class.

During her third year of law school, Ms. Dory was awarded the Rickert Award for Excellence in Service to the Community. The Rickert Awards are the most prestigious awards conferred upon students at the University of Illinois College of Law.  Ms. Dory received the Rickert Award in recognition of her having provided more than 250 personal hours of pro bono work during law school and organizing, supervising, and overseeing more than 200 students collectively who provided more than 4,000 hours of pro bono work.

Ms. Dory graduated with honors earning her BA in Journalism and BS in Family Studies and Human Development, with a minor in history at the University of Arizona in 2013.

Credentials