Staci has recently been awarded the esteemed Marie Lambert Award from the American Association for Justice.

The Women Trial Lawyers Caucus established the Marie Lambert Award in 1997, to recognize and honor women members of AAJ.  The following principles guide the members of the Women Trial Lawyers Caucus:  To advance the admirable and selfless philosophy in AAJ’s Mission, to strive to provide positive role models as women trial lawyers, to broaden the membership base of AAJ to include women by informing them of AAJ’s membership services and Mission, to provide a support system of women lawyers with whom to network, socialize, and form professional relationships, to develop female leadership for AAJ, to provide fellowship and mentorship to newly-licensed female lawyers who embark on a career of trial law, and to uphold the honor, integrity, and dignity of the legal profession.

Marie Lambert, one of the first women trial attorneys of AAJ, joined the organization in1955. Admitted to the New York bar in the 1940′s, Marie served as the first woman President of the New York Trial Lawyers Association (1974-76), in 1977, the citizens of New York elected Marie to the bench.  Marie also served on the AAJ Board of Governors (1978-80), and as Vice Chair of the Stalwarts Committee (1995-96).  Marie exemplified courage and strength to other lawyers.  She overcame many obstacles, most particularly sexism, to open her own law firm.  Marie Lambert demonstrated exemplary leadership to the profession, to her community, to AAJ, and to the Women Trial Lawyers Caucus.

 For more information click here.

Read the article “Diversity in the Plaintiff Bar,” Trial (July 2012)

Advocates for nursing home residents are livid after the Illinois House unanimously approved a bill that apparently would make it harder for the state to cite and fine homes after a resident has been injured or killed.

One advocate said House Bill 5849, sponsored by Rep. David Leitch, R-Peoria, would roll back much of the state’s 2010 landmark nursing home reform law and put more residents at risk.

“This is how nursing home reform dies,” said Wendy Meltzer, director of Chicago-based Illinois Citizens for Better Care. “Nursing home reform doesn’t die in a big, splashy way, where everybody pays attention and you go, ‘Oh my God, what a big thing that was.’ Nursing home reform dies quietly and on the edges by making it bureaucratically impossible to implement nursing home reform, and that’s what this is.”

Read more about the bill and the surrounding controversy here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                         Contact:  Staci M. Yandle

02/21/12                                                                       (618) 394-9600

Belleville, IL – The daughters of Aubrey Giles are suing Midwest Rehab & Respiratory Center and its management company, Senior Healthcare Management.  The lawsuit was filed today in  St. Clair County Circuit Court.  The family is represented by Staci Yandle of The Law Offices of Staci M. Yandle, LLC in O’Fallon, Illinois.

Terri Dancy and Linda Woods claim that the nursing home was negligent and violated the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act in a number of respects including, failing to implement appropriate care plan interventions and updating Giles’ care plan to prevent him from eloping from the nursing home, failing to appropriately monitor and supervise Giles given his prior history of attempting to elope, failing to inform Giles’ doctors and his family of his elopement attempts, failing to timely notify local law enforcement and Giles’ family of his elopement from the nursing home on January 14, 2012 and failing to staff the home with enough nursing personnel to meet the needs of the residents including Aubrey Giles.

Dancy and Woods also claim that Senior Healthcare Management failed to properly supervise, monitor and manage the staff at the nursing home, failed to take reasonable steps to prevent, eliminate and correct deficiencies noted by the Illinois Department of Public Health in its surveys and inspections and failed to assure that the nursing home complied with Federal and State laws, rules and regulations designed to protect the health and safety of its residents.

Aubrey Giles died after wandering away from Midwest Rehab & Respiratory Center in Belleville on Saturday, January 14, 2012.  He was found Monday, January 16, 2012 in a frozen creek less than one block from the nursing home. Giles was 77 years old and suffered from dementia. He had resided at the home for seven years.

“Based upon the information we have been able to gather so far, Midwest’s negligence is glaring and inexcusable.  The State and the Police have completed their investigations.  Now it’s time for us to take the next step.  We intend to pull together the remaining pieces of this unfortunate puzzle and to hold Midwest and its management accountable.  Hopefully, we can prevent other families from suffering the way this family has,” said the family’s attorney, Staci Yandle.

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On January 23, 2012 the State Journal-Register in Springfield profiled a new type model of assisted living called the “household model.”

The model has been implemented at Concordia Village in Springfield.

Read the full profile here.