Practice Focus

Megan K. McGrath is senior counsel and a member of Tressler’s Litigation Practice Group in our Chicago office. Megan is an accomplished litigation attorney who has represented not-for-profit agencies as well as municipal governments in the Northern District of Illinois and the Cook County Circuit Court. Most recently, she represented agencies that provide rehabilitation services and elder care, as well as religious orders in civil matters.

Megan honed her litigation skills defending government entities and law enforcement officers while working with private firms and municipal law departments. In doing so, she has taken over ten cases to jury trials in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, representing the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in a variety of civil rights matters, including police shootings, alleged unlawful search and seizure, false arrest, excessive force, and other injury claims.

Prior to joining Tressler, Megan was senior counsel at a well-known boutique trial law firm. Before that, she was the Senior Litigation Associate representing government entities and law enforcement officers in federal civil rights litigation for government entities and private firms. Megan developed strong litigation skills as an Assistant State’s Attorney in the Civil Actions Bureau for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, and as an Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago Department of Law. In 2018, Megan successfully argued a case before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Megan is an adjunct professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where she teaches trial practice courses, and serves on the faculty of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy as an instructor for its Building Trial Skills and Deposition programs. She previously taught legal writing as an adjunct professor at John Marshall Law School for several years.

In 2014, while an associate, Megan was honored with the Northern District of Illinois Award for Excellence in Pro Bono Service. During law school, she received the Loretta C. Douglas Merit Scholarship and earned CALI Awards in Appellate Advocacy and Professional Responsibility.

  • Chicago Bar Association, Member
  • Catholic Lawyers Guild, Board of Governors
  • Lawyers’ Assistance Program, Peer Mentor

Megan is deeply committed to giving back to her community. After graduating from Notre Dame in 1996, she moved to Chicago to serve as a volunteer fifth-grade teacher in Englewood, where she taught for two years. She later worked with HighSight, an organization that provides scholarships, academic support, and mentoring to students from low-income families attending private schools.