Irion is a principal in the Chicago office of Trial Run Inc. Irion joined Trial Run in April, 2008, immediately following her role as Director of Professional Development at DLA Piper US LLP, one of the world’s largest law firms. Irion was responsible for the attorney training programs and development initiatives serving the firm's approximately 1,500 US attorneys. Before joining DLA Piper, Irion was a member of the full-time clinical faculty of Northwestern University School of Law. She practiced law for a dozen years prior to beginning her teaching career. Initially, she clerked on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, received her law degree at Loyola University School of Law, Chicago, and earned her undergraduate degree at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. 

Irion’s Litigation Training and Experience

Irion’s litigation-related accomplishments as Director of Professional Development at DLA Piper included organizing full-day simulated trials conducted by over 130 associates at the firm's litigation retreat. She also developed the firm’s annual deposition and expert witness programs. At DLA Piper, Irion also was a founding national steering committee member of the firm's women's initiative dedicated to developing the careers of women attorneys at the firm. Irion organized training for the firm’s women on topics ranging from communication style to courtroom presence.

Prior to joining DLA Piper, Irion taught for five years on the full-time clinical faculty of Northwestern University School of Law, preceded by numerous years there as an adjunct professor while she practiced law full-time.  Her litigation-related courses included trial practice, pre-trial litigation, persuasive legal writing, and appellate advocacy. Irion also served as a deposition instructor for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy for many years.

In practice, Irion was in-house counsel at a Fortune 100 telecom company, where she handled all litigation, including major class actions, for a subsidiary. Previously, she was a litigator at a large international law firm, representing business clients in all types of civil litigation, from inception through trial.

Irion’s Contract Drafting Training and Experience

Irion teaches lawyers about contract drafting, with a special focus on junior transactional attorneys. She also teaches litigators about contract drafting and the perspective of the transactional attorney. Some of her classes are co-taught with Charles Fox of Fox Professional Development, LLC. Irion uses a combination of lecture and interactive, learning-by-doing exercises to familiarize attorneys with drafting technique.

Irion learned contract drafting the hard way: on the job. She first litigated many breach of contract cases at a major law firm, then drafted and negotiated contracts for a Fortune 100 corporation’s subsidiary. As in-house counsel, Irion drafted contracts in a variety of areas, including employment, engineering, marketing and trademarks.

Following that hands-on experience, Irion was Clinical Assistant Professor at Northwestern University School of Law, where in addition to her litigation-related classes, she created and taught the school’s first class on basic contract drafting and co-chaired the first national conference about the teaching of contract drafting. Other transactional-related courses she taught included Entrepreneurship Law, and the clinical class for the Small Business Opportunity Center, a law clinic representing small businesses and non-profit organizations, of which Irion was Assistant Director. Irion continued her interest in contract drafting at DLA Piper, where she organized the firm’s first curriculum about contract drafting.

Irion speaks frequently on drafting skills at professional conferences. She chaired a panel at the 2006 annual convention of the American Bar Association, in a Business Law Section workshop on teaching contract drafting. Irion has discussed her contract drafting teaching principles in the article “The New Classroom: Learning How to Draft Contracts in the Real World,” Business Law Today ( ABA), Sept/Oct 2006.