Bryce Hensley is one of the Founding Partners of Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley (SGGH) and co-manages the firm’s Mass Tort practice group overseeing cases involving toxic exposures, institutional sexual abuse, and defective products. Bryce specializes in handling complex litigation from the moment a client contacts the firm all the way up through trial or settlement. Bryce’s expertise, skill, and dedication have been praised by his hundreds of clients, his fellow lawyers, and the judges he regularly appears before.
Prior to founding SGGH with his partners, Bryce practiced at one of the largest personal injury law firms in Illinois, representing individuals injured or killed by the negligence and wrongful conduct of others. He was the youngest partner in the firm’s 25-plus-year history, achieving the honor in less than six years of practice.
In that time, Bryce spearheaded his firm’s representation of over 400 clients in litigation involving over $1.25 billion in recoveries for injured individuals. These included the $800 million settlement over the October 1 shooting at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas and over $450 million in settlements surrounding companies’ emissions of toxic chemicals in Illinois.
Bryce’s expertise and success in representing large numbers of injured individuals have resulted in his nomination and appointment to leadership roles in complex litigation. In 2019, Bryce was appointed by the Circuit Court of Cook County as the Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel in the Willowbrook Ethylene Oxide Litigation, which resulted in a global settlement exceeding $450 million for over 870 Plaintiffs diagnosed with cancer and other illnesses from toxic air emissions from local sterilization facilities.
Bryce’s advocacy skills are renowned, as he has 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 was resolved 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, eventually resulting in a settlement for his client. (Lewis v. City of Shreveport, et al., 765 Fed. Appx. 93 (5th Cir. 2019)).
In November 2023, Bryce was one of just four alumni featured in Chicago Kent College of Law’s Magazine dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the school’s nationally-ranked Trial Advocacy Team—a program producing over 400 lawyers in the last four decades. In 2020, Crain’s Chicago Business recognized Bryce as one of its “20 in their 20s.” He has been consistently recognized as a “Rising Star,” “Emerging Lawyer,” and “One to Watch” for years by national legal publications.
Bryce graduated magna cum laude from Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he was bestowed admission into the Order of the Coif and the Bar & Gavel Society. He was also selected as the Captain of Chicago Kent’s Trial Advocacy Team, helping them achieve a #3 national rank. In 2016, he was one of 16 law students in the country selected to attend the prestigious Top Gun Trial Competition at Baylor University. He was also voted the Best Advocate at the Tournament of Champions in Berkeley, California—the most selective invitational trial competition in the country.
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
National Trial Lawyers (NTL), Member
Top 40 under 40
American Association for Justice (AAJ), Member
Ethylene Oxide Litigation Group, Chairman
Illinois Trial Lawyers Association (ITLA), Member
Chicago-Kent College of Law, Trial Advocacy
Volunteer Coach
PUBLICATIONS, SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS & LEGAL PRESENTATIONS
AAJ Trial Magazine, An Elevated Risk, June 2023
Decalogue Tablets, Close to Home: Your Unfriendly, Neighborhood Carcinogen, Summer 2019
Best Lawyers Magazine – Business Edition, Warning Signs (Mass Shooting Lawsuits), Summer 2019
Bryce assisted in obtaining the following:
$150+ Million Settlements–Toxic Exposure
$16.83 Million Settlements–Premises Liability
$4.93 Million Verdict–Wrongful Death
$4.25 Million Settlement–Wrongful Death
$4.00 Million Settlement–Workplace Toxic Exposure Wrongful Death
$2.25 Million Settlement–Premises Liability
$2.10 Million Settlement–Abuse
$742,500 Verdict–Wrongful Death
Mass-Tort MDL Certificate, Duke Law School—Bolch Judicial Institute
J.D., magna cum laude, Chicago-Kent College of Law
Order of the Coif
Bar & Gavel Society
Chicago Kent-Trial Team, Captain
Best Advocate—Tournament of Champions, San Francisco, CA
Nominee—Top Gun Competition, Waco, TX
CALI Awards (highest grade in the class)
Torts, Civil Procedure, Property, Trial Advocacy, Evidence, and the Law of Section 1983
Teaching Assistant
Torts and Civil Procedure