Bryce T. Hensley

Bryce is a Partner at Romanucci & Blandin and helps manage the firm’s complex litigation group representing individuals and classes of victims of toxic exposures, product defects, civil rights violations, automobile accidents, and other catastrophic personal injuries and wrongful death.  He has had a key leadership role in the firm’s efforts on some of the highest-profile mass tort cases in the country alongside Founding Partner Antonio Romanucci, representing Romanucci & Blandin clients’ portion of global settlements. Bryce’s leadership and skill have been recognized in Chicago as he was appointed by the Circuit Court of Cook County in 2019 as the Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel in the Willowbrook ethylene oxide litigation, which resulted in a nine-figure global settlement for over 870 Plaintiffs diagnosed with cancer and other illnesses from toxic air emissions from local sterilization facilities. Bryce also represented more than 70 victims of the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas mass shooting, who were part of the $800 million global settlement in the case.

Bryce has also obtained tens of millions of dollars in settlements for his clients in individual cases, which include: a $4.25 million wrongful death settlement against the City of Chicago for a police shooting, a $4 million wrongful death settlement for a workplace toxic exposure, a $2.25 million settlement against a multi-purpose arena in a premises liability case that resulted in a client suffering a fractured ankle and CRPS, a $2.1 million settlement against the Archdiocese of Chicago for the sexual abuse of a minor child, $750,000 and $610,000 in settlements on behalf of clients with herniated discs due to various automobile collisions, and $301,000 for a client suffering a vicious dog bite. 

Along with settling cases, Bryce has taken numerous cases to trial. In March 2023, Bryce tried a wrongful death case against the City of Chicago, which resulted in a $4.93 million verdict for the estate of an 82-year-old woman killed in a motor vehicle collision while in a car stopped at a red light. In March 2022, Bryce delivered the rebuttal closing argument in a wrongful death case against the City of Chicago for the death of an emotionally disturbed person that resulted in a $742,500 verdict.

Bryce has also briefed, argued, and won numerous high-stakes motions and appeals in state and federal courts. Most notably, in December 2022 in the Willowbrook Ethylene Oxide Litigation, Bryce responded to a series of motions that threatened to resolve the entire case against his clients. Bryce won all of the arguments and the case resolved just weeks later in his clients’ favor. 

In December 2018, he argued before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and reversed the District Court’s grant of summary judgment against his client, which eventually resulted in a settlement for his client. (Lewis v. City of Shreveport, et al., 765 Fed. Appx. 93 (5th Cir. 2019)). 

Most recently, his writing was peer-reviewed and published in the American Association for Justice's Trial Magazine in an article he authored titled, "An Elevated Risk," where he discussed the practical and legal hurdles to litigating and proving cancer-cluster cases.

In 2020, he was honored to be named to the Crain’s Chicago Business list of the city’s “20 in their 20s.” Bryce is an active member of the American Association for Justice (AAJ) the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association (ITLA) and is a member of The National Trial Lawyers.

He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013 and earned his Juris Doctor with magna cum laude honors from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 2017. He also earned his Mass-Tort MDL Certificate from Duke Law School—Bolch Judicial Institute in 2020. 

Experience

• Mass-Tort MDL Certificate, Duke Law School—Bolch Judicial Institute, 2020
• J.D., magna cum laude, Chicago-Kent College of Law, 2017
• B.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2013

• Named one of The Best Lawyers in America©, 2023
• The Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch©, 2021-2024
• Rising Star by Illinois Super Lawyers®, 2020-2023
• Emerging Lawyer by Law Bulletin Publishing Company, 2020-2023
• Named to the ‘20 Chicagoans in their 20s’ list by Crain’s Chicago Business, 2020

• Order of the Coif, Chicago-Kent College of Law, 2017
• Bar and Gavel Society, Chicago-Kent College of Law, 2017
• Trial Advocacy Team Captain – Chicago-Kent College of Law
• Best Advocate Award – NBTA National Tournament of Champions, 2016
• Top Gun Trial Advocate – Baylor University College of Law, 2016
• CALI Award – Chicago-Kent College of Law
• Torts, Property, Civil Procedure, Evidence, Trial Advocacy, and the Law of Section 1983

• American Association for Justice (AAJ), Member
• Illinois Trial Lawyers Association (ITLA), Member
• The National Trial Lawyers, Member
• Chicago-Kent College of Law, Trial Advocacy
  • Team Captain, 2017
  • Volunteer, 2017-Present
• Immanuel Lutheran Church and School
  • Volunteer, 2014-Present

• Las Vegas Route 91 Shooting Litigation, mass tort, $800M global settlement
• LaPorta v. City of Chicago, October 2017, civil rights, $44.7M verdict
• Confidential Settlement, premises liability, $2.25M settlement
• Confidential Settlement, sexual abuse case, $2.1M settlement
• Castillo v. Reyes, automobile collision, $610,000 settlement
• Lewis v. City of Shreveport, civil rights appeal

• State of Illinois, 2017
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 2017
• U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois, 2019
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, 2021
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 2018
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, 2018
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 2021

Blog Posts

• Decalogue Tablets, Close to Home: Your Unfriendly, Neighborhood Carcinogen (Sterigenics-Ethylene Oxide Exposure Cases), Summer 2019
• Best Lawyers Magazine - Business Edition, Warning Signs (Mass Shooting Lawsuits), Summer 2019