Marc Jacobs had just finished a late dinner in downtown Chicago when he hailed a cab to his suburban Hinsdale, Illinois, home. Jacobs, a real estate partner at Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg, had been meeting with an executive from Wells Fargo Bank, one of his clients.

But on the way home to his wife and two sons, ages 12 and 8, the cab suddenly veered off Interstate 294, slamming into a concrete wall at 70 miles per hour, according to a lawsuit Jacobs filed. Jacobs, 44, suffered massive brain injuries.