John A. (Jay) Stefani is a trial lawyer concentrating on helping individuals and families affected by trucking collisions, car crashes, and wrongful death. He has represented people in these situations his entire legal career.
Honors and Awards
Jay was honored as a Top 100 Illinois Super Lawyers for 2024, after being recognized as an Illinois Super Lawyer in 2020-23 and a Rising Star for 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016. Roughly 5 percent of Illinois lawyers are selected as Super Lawyers, while 2.5 percent of Illinois lawyers under the age of 40 are selected as Rising Stars. 
Jay has also been selected as a Leading Lawyer for Illinois every year since 2018. Leading Lawyers are recommended by their peers and then selected by a multi-phase process; less than 5 percent of all licensed lawyers in Illinois receive this distinction. Jay had previously been chosen as an Emerging Lawyer for Illinois in 2017; fewer than 2 percent of qualified lawyers in the state are selected.
Leadership and Memberships
Jay is an active member of American Association for Justice (AAJ), where he was recently appointed to serve on the Law Schools Committee, and elected to serve as the Content Curator (2023-24) for the Motor Vehicle Section. A past Chair of the Sole Practitioner & Small Firm Section, he is also active as a member of AAJ’s Trucking Litigation Group and Ride Share Litigation Group. He has published numerous articles in AAJ’s monthly magazine, “Trial,” as well as the Trucking Litigation Group’s “Journal of Trucking Litigation.”
A DePaul graduate, Jay continues to be a part of the university through Alumni Sharing Knowledge (ASK), acting as a mentor within the DePaul University and College of Law communities, and teaching and speaking in the law school’s Preparing to Practice (P2P) program. He currently sits on the DePaul Law Alumni Engagement Board, where he serves as its President.
Other memberships include the Chicago Bar Association (Solo/Small Firm Practitioners Committee); the Illinois State Bar Association; and the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association.
Education
A proud “Double Demon,” Jay graduated DePaul University in 1997 and received his law degree from DePaul University College of Law in 2004. While in law school, Jay was actively involved with the DePaul Chapter of the ACLU and the Public Interest Law Association. He received the CALI Award for his Senior Seminar paper, which he later presented at the 2004 DePaul University CIPLIT Symposium, “Privacy and Identity: The Promise and Perils of a Technological Age.” The paper was subsequently published as Finding Waldo: Face Recognition Software and Concerns Regarding Anonymity and Public Political Speech, in Privacy and Technologies of Identity: A Cross-Disciplinary Conversation (Katherine Strandburg & Daniela Stan Raicu eds., Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.) (2006).
Personal
When Jay isn’t helping clients, he spends his time with his wife and two kids. He loves cooking (and eating), traveling, the Bears and Bulls, and shooting well over par on the golf course.
Jay can be reached via email at Jay@LevinsonStefani.com.
