Darren B. Watts
312-321-8460 direct
dwatts@smbtrials.com

Born Mt. Vernon, Illinois, 1959; admitted to bar Wisconsin, 1987, and Illinois, 1988; United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, 1987; United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 1998; United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, 1987; United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 1987; Federal Trial Bar; United States District Court for the Western District of Illinois; United States District Court for the Southern District of Louisiana.

Served as law clerk to the Honorable William T. Hart, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 1989-1990; law clerk to the Honorable William J. Bauer, Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, 1989; circuit staff law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, 1987-1989. Editor of the Seventh Circuit Digest, 1988.

Awarded the Anti-Defamation League’s, Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Civil Rights Award, and the Chicago Commission on Human Relations’, Civil Rights Award, Housing, 1995.

Education:
Northern Illinois University (B.A. 1982)
Northwestern University (M.A. 1984)
University of Wisconsin Law School (J.D. 1987)
   Senior Research & Articles Editor, Wisconsin Int’l Law 
      Journal (1986-87)
   Dean’s Honor List
   Benton National Moot Court Team (1986)
   Moot Court Board Member (1986-87)
   Public Interest Law Internship recipient (1986)
   Wisconsin Law Alumni Association Scholarship
     recipient (1985-87)
   Wisconsin Pro Bono Foundation Grant recipient (1985)
   Board of Directors of Wisconsin Pro Bono
     Foundation (1986-87)
   National Association of Public Interest Law Foundation,          founding member (1986)

Member:
Federal Bar Association, Member of Board of Directors,
   (1995-96)
Chicago Council of Lawyers, Board Member and
   Legal Counsel (1995-1996)
Association of Trial Lawyers of America (1994)
American Bar Association
Illinois Bar Association
Cook County Bar Association
Seventh Circuit Bar Association
Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights
   Under Law, Inc.

Practice Areas:
Commercial Litigation
Fraud and Unfair Competition
Insurance Coverage Litigation
Civil Rights
Appellate Practice

Publications:
Bias Violence, Advocating for Victims (Part I), with
   Elizabeth Shuman-Moore, Clearinghouse Review
   (January 1995)
Bias Violence, Advocating for Victims (Part II), with
   Elizabeth Shuman-Moore and Michele M. Giffels,  
   Clearinghouse Review (March 1995)
Constitutional and Federal Statutory Protection of
   Medical Records Privacy and Confidentiality, in Zaremski    & Goldstein’s Medical and Hospital Negligence,
   Ch. 9 (1988)
European Missile Deployment: Approaching the Watershed,    1 Cogitations on Law and Government (Fall, 1983)