Chicago attorney and child advocate, Jay Paul Deratany (founder of The Deratany Firm, which is now Deratany & Kosner), has spent years working tirelessly to protect the rights of foster children. In 2018, he won a $45 million judgement – the largest award ever in the history of the State of Illinois – involving the death of a toddler in the foster care system. He is also the writer and producer of the award-winning film, Foster Boy, starring Matthew Modine and Academy Award-winner Louis Gossett Jr., a courtroom drama based on several of Jay’s actual cases. Basketball legend, Shaquille O’Neal, a child advocate himself, took special interest in Jay’s film, and is an executive producer.
