Robert A. Clifford
Founded Clifford Law Offices in 1984 and is its senior partner. Forty-nine years at the Illinois bar — the longest career on our Illinois pages, and the only one of the fourteen not admitted in a November. The firm publishes a lifetime recovery total; we print no settlement or verdict figures.
The bar record
We read Robert A. Clifford in the public register of the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois. This is what it says.
and pending proceedings
What the ARDC will and won’t stand behind. It enumerates what that discipline line covers: all public discipline, court-ordered disability inactive status, reinstatement and restoration dispositions, and pending public proceedings — with no cut-off date. It then says investigations are confidential and that information about whether one exists is not available. So “None” means the register shows no public discipline and no pending public proceeding. It does not mean no complaint was ever made. We report the register, not an inference from it.
The insurance line is his, not the register’s. Illinois publishes a malpractice-insurance field, which most registers do not — but read its wording. It says the attorney reported at annual registration that he or his firm maintains cover. The ARDC is publishing his answer, not verifying it. Arizona and Washington publish an insurance field too; Illinois is the one that names whose claim it is.
What the record shows
Clifford is the longest-serving lawyer on our Illinois pages by some distance: admitted 13 October 1976, forty-nine years. The next is Richard Victor at forty-one.Verified
His is also the only admission date on these fourteen Illinois listings that does not fall in November — Matthew Belcher’s December 1993 being the other exception among the two already published.Verified
What the firm says
The firm says it has been named one of the 50 Elite Law Firms in the country by the National Law Journal, and the only Chicago firm given that distinction, as well as one of the top 10 litigation boutiques and, in 2020, Aviation Law Firm of the Year.Reported
The firm says it has recovered more than a stated multi-billion-dollar total in verdicts and settlements. We do not print recovery figures — see below.Reported
The firm says nine of its lawyers have been named to the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin’s “40 Under 40” list.Reported
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What we haven’t checked
No attorney pays to be listed here, and this profile is not an endorsement or a recommendation. We report the public record so you can weigh it yourself. If anything here is inaccurate or out of date, tell us and we’ll correct it. How we work