Crashed: July 19, 1989, in Sioux City, Iowa.

A nation watched in horror as a home video fixed on Runway 2L at Sioux City, Iowa’s airport captured the horror. Over and over again, television stations aired the video of a huge jetliner, United Airlines Flight 232, cartwheeling in flames before crash-landing in a soybean field. Passengers were thrown from the plane, killing 112. Another 184 miraculously survived, crawling to safety. There were many heroes that day.

Mr. Clifford received a $28.3 million verdict on behalf of a 70-year-old woman who suffered permanent injuries and her husband who was killed. Doris Levenberg had a wonderful life before taking that ill-fated flight. She was returning from Denver where she and her husband of less than a year, 71-year-old Allan, were surveying retirement nests. She was active and happy and loved. But in 44 minutes while the plane swirled in circles in the sky before crash landing, their lives were totally different. Allan was killed. Doris was permanently disabled, left to a life of constant painful rehabilitation after suffering nerve damage that impaired the use of her limbs, as well as a broken neck, left arm, right ankle and left leg. Using state-of-the-art visual exhibits and trial presentation techniques, Mr. Clifford tried the case for two weeks before jurors who ranged in age from 22 to 76. It took the jury less than three hours to determine that verdict, a record amount then for a personal injury case in Illinois. The foreman was later quoted to say that it was clear from the trial testimony that Doris was a “fighter who wanted as much out of life as possible despite her injuries.” Mr. Clifford also represented a Chicago-area businessman whose family was wiped out in the crash. Mr. Clifford received a $15 million settlement on behalf of Terry Brown who lost his wife Janice and 11-year-old daughter Kimberly. The two were returning from a visit to grandma’s and last minute their seats had been reassigned on the plane. The two people in their previous seats survived the crash. Terry wanted to hold someone culpable in order to make airplane manufacturers more aware of safety concerns. On his behalf, Mr. Clifford obtained an unprecedented admission of responsibility for the crash from the most culpable defendant, General Electric Corporation which manufactured the plane’s engine. Although GE maintained that United Airlines and McDonnell Douglas, builders of the jet, also were responsible, GE admitted that it failed to detect a crack in the engine during routine inspections. Following the settlement, Mr. Brown said that although his wife and daughter paid the ultimate price, he felt he had done everything he could and everything they would have wanted him to do.

Mr. Clifford also was able to extract an additional $250,000 from the defendants, which included McDonnell Douglas Corporation, manufacturer of the aircraft, to be donated to Chicago Children’s Hospital. The additional funds allowed for a bereavement center to be set up in the names of Janice and Kimberly Brown.