Marissa Downs is a seasoned construction litigator who focuses her practice on complex construction, product liability, and other technical-commercial disputes. She has extensive experience representing contractors, developers, owners, manufacturers, and others in a variety of complex litigation matters, including scheduling, changing order disputes, productivity claims, international and domestic contract, design and manufacturing defect litigation, insurance coverage, fraud, fiduciary breach, and shareholder disputes.
Clients turn to Marissa most often for her advocacy skills. Marissa developed a passion for litigation in law school after being selected to compete on Northwestern’s inter-collegiate National Trial Team. She remains a zealous advocate and has arbitrated multiple matters before the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and tried cases to conclusion in both federal and state courts.
While comfortable in the courtroom, Marissa recognizes that most disputes settle before that and approaches each case with a goal-oriented and fee-sensitive outlook on behalf of her clients to determine their best outcome.
Prior to joining Laurie & Brennan, Marissa gained over a decade of experience working for larger law firms and prides herself and her firm on the ability to offer “Big Law” service at more affordable rates.
She gained valuable litigation experience clerking for Justice Robert Eastaugh of the Alaska Supreme Court, interning at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in The Hague, Netherlands, and through competitive internship placements at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the Office of the State Appellate Defender (Illinois) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
Before entering law school, Marissa was an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense and spent a year in Rwanda working with the International Rescue Committee. Although Marissa has called Chicago home for over 15 years, having been born and raised in Dallas, Texas, she still cannot bring herself to root for the Bears.