In Business Since ‘56

Joseph R. Curcio graduated from Chicago’s John Marshall Law School in 1955. Sixty-two years later, in 2017, his son Robert J. “R.J.” Curcio earned his J.D. from the same institution before joining his father’s Chicago-based personal injury firm, then called Curcio Law Offices. 

“There’s obviously been multiple variations of the firm over several decades,” says R.J. “But it was originally founded by my dad in 1956 and has been in business ever since. He’s been practicing plaintiff’s personal injury since day one, and so have I.”

For Joseph, it’s been a “long sought-after dream” to be able to work alongside his family at the firm—which includes his wife, appellate counsel Tracy A. Robb and R.J.’s brother Mark, who joined as COO in 2024. Says Joseph: “Tracy has been with the firm for a very long time. She is an accomplished appellate lawyer who is respected by her colleagues.”

From R.J.’s perspective, Joseph has always been a role model. “Growing up with my dad being the attorney that he was, and seeing the compassion—and the justice—that he brought to his clients, that was probably the singular driving factor of choosing this specific area of law,” he says, noting the professional guidance his father has offered. “I definitely cherish the moments that we get to spend together, whether that’s in the office or around his kitchen table, and talking maybe a little bit about the yesterdays of his life and how they apply to my life today.”

Many are from trial experiences Joseph has had, including bits of theatrics. “He [once] had some literature with him—very small text—and he anticipated the witness saying, ‘Well I can’t read that.’ So he says, ‘Would a magnifying glass assist you?’ ‘Yes, sir, yes it would.’ ‘Luckily I brought one with.’ And he pulls out of his briefcase this magnifying glass that looks like part has an elephant’s tusk,” says R.J. “It’s massive, and has to be 12 inches long and weigh 5 pounds. He brings it over and says, ‘Will this help?’ Jury trials can be long and boring, so how to bring moments of levity and make an impression on a jury is something that’s stuck with me.”

Naturally, R.J. and Joseph approach their work differently: R.J. is more technologically savvy, whereas video conferencing is new territory for Joseph. R.J. describes his father as bringing an intensity to his work, while his own style can be more laid-back. 

Though he’s held various roles at the firm since 2008, it wasn’t until just after completing law school that R.J. got his first real taste of working with Joseph on a case. At the pretrial conference, where resolution was encouraged by the judge, R.J. discovered that “negotiations were unlike anything that I had ever seen or had been taught how they work in law school.”

With his father, it’s always been “trial-by-fire” learning. “What I mean by that,” says R.J., “is I took a deposition in a case where a woman was hit by a closing automatic door at a grocery store. We were taking this deposition in the stock room, next to the bananas and the avocados. And the owner answered ‘no’ to everything. I thought that meant, ‘No, he didn’t know,’ ‘No, this didn’t happen.’ I called my dad, and I was really proud. And he proceeded to tell me, ‘Well, “no” is an equivocal answer.’ I didn’t understand what he was saying, but now I do. If you ask a question like, ‘Do you know if there was maintenance done on this door?’ and they say ‘No,’ is it ‘No I don’t know,’ or ‘No, there was no maintenance?’ He and I went round and round for 45 minutes as I drove down the Kennedy from Lee Street back to the office.”

Joseph says his son isn’t giving himself enough credit. “R.J.’s been a very able student of the law,” he says. “I have contributed somewhat to his development, but he has developed on his own, independently of my mentorship. I’m very proud of him.”

While R.J. believes his father has set the tone for delivering results to Curcio & Casciato’s clients over the past seven decades, he’s also looking toward the firm’s future. “Being able to see what he has done for so many years, take it, try to make it a little bit of my own, and bring on a second generation for this firm has been extraordinarily rewarding.”