About Stephen I. Laneof counsel

Steve Lane is of counsel at Lane Brown, originally working alongside his father and brother until Fred Lane retired, under the family business motto of “doing the right thing” to help protect the rights of those who can’t fight for themselves. 2022 marks Steve’s 44th anniversary practicing law, pouring his efforts into catastrophic personal injury cases.

Over the course of his professional career, Steve has served on numerous Illinois Bar Association and Illinois Trial Lawyers’ Association committees.

He has also had the privilege of authoring legislation and testifying before the Illinois state legislature, and of teaching other lawyers over the years, instructing them in areas of medical matters and litigation, and trial and strategy. His hope is that more people are being helped every day because he has been able to help other lawyers become better advocates for their clients. Steve has been recognized by Martindale-Hubbell as a “Preeminent Attorney” for many years. Most recently, he was named a 2022 “Illinois Super Lawyer” and has consistently earned this award each year since the award was established, and has been included in their Top 100 list every year since 2015.

Above and beyond all of his accomplishments during his legal career, the one thing that he is most proud of is his family. Steve is married, and the father of three adult children, all of whom are married. He and his wife Sally, our office manager, are proud grandparents, too! Their oldest daughter, Jessica, is married to Danny Raskin and is the mother of Steve’s three grandchildren. Steve’s son-in-law, Danny Raskin, shares the Lanes’ close-knit family interest, and is one of the owners and managers of an icon of Chicago: Manny’s Delicatessen. Steve and Sally’s son, Danny, was a manager with Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (a prominent restaurant development company) for many years, and recently has transitioned to a career in data compilation and analysis. Danny is married to his wife, Alyx, who is an emergency room nurse, during the pandemic, and their youngest daughter, Kim, works as an elementary school math interventionist and was also married this year to Devlin, who manages the IT for a prominent ad specialty company.

In his “spare time,” Steve is a man of hidden talents of all kinds. Music is one of his great passions—he plays guitar and sings in a local rock band, as well as for his temple’s guitar band at services. Steve has been scuba diving all over the world since 1974; loves animals to the point that Sally often refers to him as “Dr. Doolittle”; enjoys the Chicago Bears, Bulls, and White Sox. Steve spent his younger days playing on multiple football and softball leagues. These days, his athletic participation is limited to working out each day, running around with his grandkids, some fishing and an occasional round of golf.

Steve is a hands-on kind of guy as well, building and fixing everything possible around his home and office, whether it’s troubleshooting computer equipment at Lane Brown, or maintaining his home-built 300 gallon aquarium and guitars.

Throughout all of his life experiences, both the joys and the struggles, Steve has applied everything he’s learned toward gaining insight and perspective into the lives of the people he’s fighting for.

To sum up his perspective on life, Steve feels that his family has always taught him to do the right things, to fight against and through adversity, and to be giving and tolerant of others. And, he has learned to be happy with what he has, because ultimately, as his clients have demonstrated, happiness is not determined by the “things” we have in life, but rather by our attitude and perspective toward each day.

Email Stephen directly.