Hassakis & Hassakis, P.C. Welcomes Attorney Shane Carnine

We are happy to announce that Shane Carnine has joined the firm. He brings valuable expertise to Hassakis & Hassakis, P.C. as a past special assistant attorney general and former trial lawyer for the defense bar. His 15 years of experience will be put to good use fighting for the rights of those adversely affected by the negligence of others.

Like Mr. Humbrecht, Mr. Carnine also has a history of an attorney in the family, and Mr. Carnine was recently featured as an Emerging Lawyer in Leading Lawyers magazine.

In that article, Mr. Carnine talked about listening to his father analyzing the next step to take with respect to court proceedings and he is quoted as saying that he “passively absorbed that information for years, which was a very unusual way to start the business.”

Shane was also influenced at an early age when he would read law journal articles of an emeritus professor of Southern Illinois University School of Law. These past experiences led him to minor in pre-law and major in political science at Eastern Illinois University. While at EIU in Charleston, Carnine worked for the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, which is a central and southern Illinois organization that provides free legal services for low-income people and senior citizens.

The Emerging Lawyers article also refers to Shane’s one-year clerkship in the Utah Court of Appeals, where he found a work-life balance right out of school and managed to go snowboarding when he was not drafting legal opinions for the appellate court.

Before joining Hassakis & Hassakis, P.C., Carnine worked for his father’s firm for 6 years alongside his dad, before the elder Carnine retired in 2010 after 37 years of practicing law. In the article, Shane credits his father, who was inducted as a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, as being instrumental in teaching Shane and being his mentor for a number of decades.

The article also quotes from one of Carnine’s former clients, and has a reference to some insight provided by a retired judge for the 4^th Judicial Circuit. Judge Hitpas, who now serves as a mediator in some of Carnine’s cases, noted that Shane is “a good, hardworking young lawyer” who is “a very good advocate for his clients.” One of those former clients is quoted in the article as explaining that Shane assured him that “everything was going to be fine, and he wasn’t kidding.”

The full text of the article can be found here.

Carnine is a past president of the Jefferson County Bar Association.