Levin & Perconti Managing Partner Margaret Battersby Black honored with Illinois State Bar Association's Carole K. Bellows Women of Influence Award

• Levin & Perconti, www.levinperconti.com, announced that the firm's managing partner Margaret Battersby Black has been awarded the Illinois Bar Association's Carole K. Bellows Women of Influence award. The award honors those who raise awareness of unmet legal needs of women, are advocates for action addressing women's issues, or who promote involvement by women in the legal community at all levels.

Each year the award is given to two female attorneys. Battersby Black, was honored in the category of those with 10 years of experience or more in the field. The award is named after legal pioneer, Judge Carole K. Bellows. She made history as the first woman in the country elected to serve as president of a state bar association. She served as president of the Illinois State Bar Association from 1977-1978.

Battersby Black is an award-winning attorney in personal injury and medical malpractice law. She is best known for representing victims and their families in nursing home abuse and negligence, birth injury and sexual abuse cases. Her clients are predominantly women. In 2022 Battersby Black obtained a jury verdict of $20 million for a mother and her son in a birth injury case. She actively represents women in birth injury cases and sexual assault cases and has successfully resolved these matters for her clients.

Battersby Black is also a leader in the legal community and a longtime advocate and mentor for female lawyers. She was a founding member and the inaugural chair of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Women's Caucus, and is active in the Women's Bar Association of Illinois and many other legal organizations.

"I am so honored to receive the Carole K. Bellows Women of Influence award and I will work hard to continue her legacy of advocating for women in the legal system," said Battersby Black. "As an attorney, I am proud to help vulnerable women find their voices and receive accountability from those whose actions have hurt them and their families. I also feel a strong responsibility to mentor, support and encourage the next generation of female attorneys because there is more work to be done."