Matt Bills (1998 - Decatur, IL)
Bills was selected as the 1998 Western Illlinois University Student Laureate of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois. Bills, a 1999 management graduate, is a principal at the Chicago law firm of Grippo & Elden LLC, where he represents companies and individuals in complex business litigation nationwide. He became a partner at Grippo & Elden in 2010 and regularly represents clients in a variety of high stakes commercial disputes involving breach of contract, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, non-competes, post-closing disputes, and insurance coverage. In addition, Bills regularly consults, speaks, and writes on a variety of electronic discovery issues. He is a member of the Seventh Circuit Electronic Discovery Pilot Program Committee and serves as chair of his firm’s Electronic Discovery Resource Group. He also represents clients in pro bono matters. Bills has been named an “Illinois Rising Star” every year since 2011. In 2013, Bills was profiled as one of “40 Illinois Attorneys Under Forty to Watch.”
Following law school, Bills worked as a law clerk to the Honorable James F. Holderman on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Bills then entered private practice as an attorney at Winston & Strawn LLP in Chicago. He is a 2002 University of Illinois College of Law graduate. In law school, Bills was on the editorial board of the University of Illinois Law Review, a member of the trial team and graduated summa cum laude, Order of the Coif.
Bills has continued to serve his alma mater since graduation, regularly attending WIU and alumni events, serving two terms on the WIU Alumni Council, delivering the 2012 keynote address at the Centennial Honors College Pre-Law Symposium and providing financial support to many areas, including the Alumni Association, University Housing and Dining, the Centennial Honors College, the College of Business and Technology, the Department of Management, Student Activities and the University Union.
While at WIU, Bills was the Student Government Association president for three years, the College of Business and Technology and the Department of Management Outstanding Senior, recipient of the William E. Brattain Outstanding Student Leader Award and served on the Western Courier staff, as a Student Orientation Team leader, and as a member of Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi, Beta Gamma Sigma, and Sigma Iota Epsilon. In addition, he was an officer of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He was also a Lincoln Academy of Illinois Student Laureate, the 1998 Student Convocation Speaker and graduated summa cum laude.
Upon graduation from WIU in December 2003, she began working on her PhD in Biochemistry at Utah State University in Dr. Joan Hevel’s lab studying protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs). She received her doctorate from Utah State in 2008 and immediately began working as a scientist in research and development at ARUP Laboratories, an academic enterprise of the University of Utah, researching the genetics of vascular anomalies with Dr. Pinar Bayrak-Toydemir. While at ARUP, she has developed numerous molecular genetics assays that have benefited patient care and facilitated the diagnosis of disease. In 2013, she became an Adjunct Assistant Professor of the Department of Pathology at the University of Utah and later received a competitive Young Investigator Award from the CureHHT foundation to study the genetics of Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT). She has received several awards for her research on HHT and vascular anomalies. Dedicated to improving patient care and the education of other scientists, she has published over 30 peer reviewed journal articles and served on several graduate student committees.
Connect with us: