Hale & Mercer names former public defender Daniel Okafor to lead litigation group

Hale & Mercer LLP has formally named partner Daniel Okafor as head of its litigation group, the firm said this week, confirming a role he has held on an interim basis since 2021.

Okafor, 44, joined the firm in 2016 after six years as an assistant Cook County public defender, where he tried more than sixty cases to verdict. He is best known in civil practice for a 2015 wrongful-termination verdict on behalf of a warehouse supervisor who had been dismissed two weeks after filing a safety complaint; the jury deliberated for less than two hours.

"Daniel is the calmest person in any courtroom because he has already done the work," said managing partner Elena Marsh. "He also happens to be the lawyer I would want if I were the one being sued, which is the only test that matters."

The litigation group has eleven lawyers and handles commercial disputes, employment and whistleblower claims, and business torts. Okafor said the group's focus would not change. "We take cases to trial when trial is the right answer and we say so early when it is not," he said. "Cases are won in preparation. The courtroom is just where you find out."

Okafor, who grew up in Houston and studied at Rice and the University of Chicago Law School, lives in Hyde Park and coaches an under-12 youth football team at Jackson Park. Asked which was harder, managing litigators or managing eleven-year-olds, he declined to answer on the record.

The appointment is the second leadership change at the firm this year, following the promotion of Aisha Mahmoud to senior associate in the same group.