Cara Rafanelli is based in the firm’s Chicago office. Cara is a seasoned trial attorney whose decades long practice has focused on premises liability, products liability, transportation and trucking injuries, malpractice defense, and catastrophic personal injury defense.  

Cara has successfully defended clients in cases involving wrongful death and survival actions, quadriplegia, amputation, and severe personal injuries. She is also on the Federal Trial Bar Pro Bono Panel which is dedicated to representing indigent pro se plaintiffs.

Cara earned a B.A. in History with a minor in Music Performance from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque before obtaining her Juris Doctorate from the University of Tulsa College of Law in her home state of Oklahoma. While in law school, Cara was an intern for the Honorable James O. Ellison in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma where Judge Ellison fostered her love of trial advocacy and legal writing.

Cara is licensed to practice in the States of Illinois and Michigan as well as the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States. She is also a member of the Federal Trial Bar. Cara is a current member of the Chicago Bar Association Trial Practice Committee and a past member of the Illinois State Bar Association Civil Practice and Procedure Committee and Women’s Bar Association of Illinois Judicial Evaluation Committee. Cara enjoys association with the Southwest Suburban Chi Omega Alumnae Association and the Illinois American Pleasure Horse Association.