Alton attorney John J. Hopkins has merged with the firm of Gori Julian & Associates.
Hopkins, who has practiced law for 40 years, will continue to focus in the areas of medical malpractice, personal injury, nursing home litigation and workers' compensation.
Gori Julian has grown from a single office in Edwardsville to a nationwide asbestos and personal injury firm with additional offices in St. Louis, Washington, D.C., New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Orlando, Fla.
“Gori Julian & Associates has a great reputation not only as a leading law firm but also for the many great things they do to support Madison County and the Metro-East at large,” Hopkins stated in a press release. “I’m proud to be affiliated with such a highly respected firm and will continue to provide the same great legal service to clients in need of our help and advocacy.”
Hopkins will remain in the office he currently occupies at 500 6th St. in Alton.
He received his undergraduate degree in English at St. Louis University in 1973 and his juris doctorate at University of Tulsa College of Law in 1977.
Hopkins has received a number of honors within the legal community, including AV Preeminent peer review rating, "Top Fifty, Leading Consumer Lawyers in Downstate Illinois" by Leading Lawyers Network Magazine in 2011. He was elected Fellow of the American Bar Assocation in 2002.
He has served as president of the Madison County Bar Association (1996-97), Alton-Wood River Bar Association (2011), and Tri-City Bar Association (1985-86).
Hopkins also has authored numerous "Sidebar" columns for the Record since 2004, the year of the paper's founding.
Gori Julian, according to its website, has tried thousands of asbestos exposure claims and hundreds of mesothelioma lawsuits, obtaining over $2.5 billion in verdict awards and settlements.
In 2016, Gori Julian filed the most asbestos suits of any one firm in the nation. Its filing of 541 asbestos suits in courts across the country represented 11.7 percent of all filed.