Sarah Toney

Sarah Toney has been proudly serving clients throughout the Chicagoland area for years. She has extensive experience handling nearly every type of criminal offense, ranging from first-time DUI offenses to major felonies. Backed by years of legal knowledge and first-hand trial experience, she has easily become a stand out attorney in her field.

Sarah’s first legal job was the summer between her first and second year of law school. It was at a criminal defense firm. On her first day on the job, they gave her a murder case of a clearly innocent man. From that early moment on, she was totally hooked on the case. She even took a month off of law school during her second year to try the case with her boss.

She loved the case not only because her client was innocent, but because she loved the work and she loved helping the client during an obviously serious crisis. That first case was life-changing and even caused her to decide to practice another area of law. It was at that exact moment that she knew she had found her true calling. Sarah stayed at that firm for 10 years before starting her own criminal defense practice. Illinois Lawyers Care recently wrote an article on Ms. Toney about how she has found her true calling which you can read here.

Sarah Toney is one of the only criminal and DUI defense attorneys in the Chicago area to have gone through several continuing education courses and seminars. These invite-only classes further distinguish her as a leading authority on criminal and DUI matters.

A snippet of some of the advanced, invite-only seminars and classes she has attended:

• Intensive DNA Seminar with international expert Dr. Greg Hampikian at his lab at Boise State. The Dr. testified in the Amanda Knox trial and the course involved hands-on work in the lab extracting and analyzing DNA and performing statistical analysis. Idaho, November 2013
• Forensic Drug Chemistry learning how solid drugs are tested with the men who brought the very first testing machine to the United States, Dr. Harold McNair, and Dr. Lee Polite. The course was sanctioned by the American Chemical Society and involved working in the lab testing suspected drugs, January 2013
• Forensic Gas Chromatography learning how the gas chromatograph which tests blood works at Axion Labs. Included working in the lab with the machine, taking it apart and running tests with it with Dr. McNair and Dr. Polite, September 2012
• MacCarthy on Cross-Examination intensive seminar with renown cross-examination expert Terry MacCarthy. The course involved performing mock cross on witnesses in front of the group while Terry MacCarthy critiqued the cross. May 2011
• Intoximeters EC/IR II Training Course learning how the breathalyzer machine that Illinois uses works, including hands-on work with the machine, taking it apart and using it for testing. Ohio, June 2010
• Standardized Field Sobriety Testing Student Course, going through the same training given to police officers on how to administer field sobriety tests and the same tests, which she passed. California 2006

 Licenses

• United States District Court - 2004
• Northern District of Illinois - 2004
• General Federal Bar - 2004
• United States District Court - 2006
• Central District of Illinois - 2006
• United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit - 2007
• United States Supreme Court - 2009

Memberships

• National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
• National College for DUI Defense, Inc.
• Illinois State Bar Association
• Chicago Bar Association
• Women's Criminal Defense Bar Association

Employment

She has been an Adjunct Professor at Loyola University of Chicago School of Law since 2006. In 2012, she created an Advanced Criminal Law Writing Course for 2L and 3L law students which she taught in 2012-2014.

• Associate at Komie and Associates (April 2001 - April 2011)
• Adjunct Professor at Loyola University, Chicago School of Law (August 2006 - Present)
  • Adjunct Professor of Legal Writing
  • Clinical Supervisor, Life After Innocence Clinic at Loyola
  • Adjunct Professor, Advanced Writing for Criminal Law (Fall 2012 - Spring 2014)

Education

• Miami University of Ohio, B.S.
• Loyola University of Law, J.D.

Notable Work

• Illinois Bar Journal | Quoted in article about the importance of being able to give case files and discovery to defendants in custody - 2020
• Illinois Bar Journal | Quoted about the state of Illinois expungements - 2019
• Illinois Bar Journal | Featured in an article called Women Flying Solo - 2018
• ISBA Traffic Laws and Courts Newsletter | "Message From the Chair" - 2012
• American Bar Association Journal E-Report | "This Is Serious" - 2005
• Family Law Committee of the Section on Legal Practice of the Int | "San Francisco Conference Report: The Family Law Programme" No. 11 - 2004
• Children's Legal Rights Journal | Article was a multi-state summary of recent court decision relating to interrogations of minors by police - 2003
• Discrimination and Gender Equality Committee of the Section on L | "San Francisco Conference Report: The Family Law Programme" Vol. 9 No. 1