Jesse A. Placher

Jesse is a blue collar worker in a white collar industry. He graduated high school early and put himself through community college before transferring to the University of Virginia.

He came home to Illinois for law school, clerking for a large downstate defense firm during his summers. He spent 15 years working on the defense side, primarily defending hospitals and healthcare workers. He tried a dozen medical malpractice cases for the defense – not one of those cases ended in a verdict for the plaintiff. He became the partner-in-charge of his office in Peoria and the office’s lead partner on the medical malpractice defense team.

Ultimately, Jesse realized that his heart was no longer in defending the healthcare industry. After years of seeing injustices play out firsthand, he found himself called to protect the rights of those injured at the hands of healthcare workers.

He proudly joined forces with Dudley & Lake in 2022. Jesse considers it a privilege to now have the opportunity to help injury victims and families with their medical negligence, wrongful death, and nursing home negligence matters. While Jesse has tried cases throughout the State and remains willing to do so, he primarily focuses his practice on downstate matters.