Welcome
I am a commercial litigation attorney with thirty-one years of trial and appellate court experience and success. My clients hail from the Chicago area and from across the country. I typically counsel and represent individual entrepreneurs and small to medium size businesses, and am engaged in suits pending in jurisdictions throughout the United States. I devote considerable attention to the representation of franchisees, dealers and distributors. Every commercial dispute, including those involving franchises and dealerships, presents unique challenges and a thorough understanding of the broad spectrum of laws affecting business transactions. I approach each matter with commitment, integrity and a focused effort on achieving the client’s desired goals.
More often than not, my clients come to me when they are locked in a David versus Goliath battle for survival. To succeed in these cases requires skill and experience. I take pride in my ability to provide creative and sensible counsel to my clients, to set realistic and achievable goals and to aggressively pursue those goals in a court of law.
Our Recent Successes
My team and I continue to achieve successes for our clients under even the most difficult situations. In Minnesota Supply Company v The Raymond Corporation, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed a jury verdict of more than 12.8 million dollars, plus attorneys’ fees, won for our client, a Minnesota lift truck dealer that had been wrongfully terminated.
In Girl Scouts of Manitou Council v Girl Scouts of the USA, we have twice achieved success in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. In the first appeal, the Seventh Circuit adopted our argument that a local, nonprofit Girl Scouts council was entitled to the protections of a “dealer” under the Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law (WFDL). The Court of Appeals ordered the extraordinary remedy of preliminarily enjoining the national Girl Scouts organization from interfering with or removing any of the territory or jurisdiction of our client’s council. In the second appeal, the Court of Appeals again reversed the lower court, this time agreeing with our argument that enforcement of the WFDL in this case caused no interference with national organization’s First Amendment right of expressive association. The Seventh Circuit ordered judgment in favor of our client and directed the lower court to order appropriate relief for the council. In the meantime, the Court of Appeals ordered that the preliminary injunction be reinstated for the protection of the council.
We recently had the privilege of pursuing and arguing on appeal one of the very first cases to be brought under Illinois’ newly enacted Citizens Participation Act. That Act seeks to prevent the use of abusive litigation as a means of punishing or preventing citizens’ exercise of their First Amendment rights of speech and to petition the government. In our case, Hytel Group v Butler, we represented the former Controller of Hytel. After being let go from her position, she filed a claim with the Illinois Department of Labor to recover nominal wages still owed her. In retaliation, her former employer slapped a multi-million dollar law suit against her. We stepped in at that point and successfully had the case dismissed under the new law. We also recovered the attorneys’ fees incurred in getting the case dismissed. The dismissal and fee award were affirmed on appeal, with the Illinois Court of Appeals finding that the fees awarded in the lower court should have been even more.
Typical of the matters we handle, these cases forged new arguments and made new law in support of our clients. The Girl Scouts case, for example, is the first appellate decision in the nation to apply a state’s franchise or dealership statute to nonprofits.
Recognitions and Acknowledgements
The American Bar Association’s Forum on Franchising is the premier organization for lawyers regularly engaged in legal issues affecting franchises and dealerships. At the Forum’s last annual meeting I had the privilege of presenting a paper to my colleagues on the dealership protection laws on the books in all fifty states.
Martindale-Hubbell has assigned me an “AV” rating; its highest peer review rating for both ethical standards and legal ability. I have been named an Illinois “Super Lawyer” and an Illinois “Leading Lawyer”. Franchise Times magazine has designated me a “Legal Eagle,” and I have been named in Who’s Who Legal, the International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers published by the International Bar Association. I am honored and flattered to have attained acknowledgment by these prominent publications.
About this Site
I encourage you to browse this site for a more thorough overview of my commercial litigation services.
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