The lawyers in our Chicago office practice in each of Sonnenschein's major practice areas, including:
Our Chicago office lawyers have handled every variety of federal and state antitrust litigation—merger and acquisition matters involving Section 7 of the Clayton Act; price discrimination matters under the Robinson-Patman Act and state laws; horizontal price-fixing conspiracy cases under the Sherman Act; vertical distribution conspiracy cases under the Sherman Act; Sherman Act monopolization cases; and state antitrust and unfair competition claims. With broad experience in all facets of litigation, our lawyers have handled numerous trials and appeals of complex antitrust and trade regulation matters in courts throughout the United States.
We also have extensive experience handling antitrust, consumer protection and other regulatory matters at the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission as well as other federal and state agencies. Our practice includes extensive counseling of clients with regard to mergers and acquisitions, Hart-Scott-Rodino Act filings, pricing, and many other antitrust and trade regulation areas. Our counseling activities have included advising clients regarding the development and implementation of antitrust compliance programs, especially in the wake of the federal government's sentencing guidelines for corporations.
Our antitrust and trade regulation clients have included McDonald's Corporation, Sara Lee Corporation, Frito-Lay, Inc., Holiday Hospitality and its subsidiaries (including Holiday Inns), Montgomery Ward & Co., Chicago North Western Transportation Co., Inc., BASF Corporation, Owens-Illinois, Inc., Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation, Illinois Tool Works, Sears, Roebuck and Co., and Allstate Insurance Company, among many others.
The work routinely performed by this diverse group directly reflects marketplace trends -- public offerings, mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs, refinancings and strategic alliances including outsourcing relationships. Our clients are engaged in a variety of industries, including consumer products, financial services, manufacturing, biotechnology, computer-based and information technology services, insurance, health care and telecommunications. Among the Chicago office's regular corporate and securities clients are: Goldman, Sachs & Co., LaSalle National Bank, McDonald's Corporation, Molex Incorporated, Oil-Dri Corporation of America, Sara Lee Corporation, and William Blair & Company.
Lawyers in our Chicago office are experienced in handling all types of litigation, including commercial, real estate, environmental, labor and employment, government contracts, franchising and distribution, insurance, appellate, intellectual property, antitrust, construction, stockholder derivative suits and white-collar criminal defense. They handle cases at both the trial and appellate levels in federal and state courts throughout Illinois, as well as in other parts of the country.
Sonnenschein's employee benefits and executive compensation practice is one of the largest and most well established in the country. It encompasses all aspects of employee benefits and executive compensation work: general counseling; design, drafting and administration of retirement plans and welfare benefit plans; new product development; diverse ESOP matters (including the representation of ESOPs' sponsoring employers, professional trustees, lenders, and advisors); design and negotiation of employment contracts and severance packages, golden parachute arrangements and a wide variety of executive incentive compensation arrangements; regulatory matters; legislative issues; and litigation (including breach of fiduciary responsibility, prohibited transaction, and bankruptcy court litigation involving pension benefit plans, enforcement of change of control provisions and executive compensation agreements), offering technical depth in all areas of the employee benefits and executive compensation practice.
Sonnenschein's reputation and frequent dealings with the agencies that regulate employee benefits (on both the policy-making and the operating levels) allow us to provide our clients with quick access to these agencies and an opportunity for expedited processing of formal ruling requests, where appropriate, as well as informal inquiries on innovative issues. We have developed credibility within these agencies, founded on frequent dealings and mutual respect. Similarly, we have worked closely with the most respected compensation consultants, executive recruiters and accounting firms (including on non-compete valuations and cross-border tax equalization issues) and can offer our corporate and individual clients the benefit of our many successes in negotiating employment and severance agreements and in designing and implementing executive incentive arrangements.
Our Chicago lawyers regularly represent clients on varied environmental matters, encompassing litigation as well as risk assessment and plans for managing environmental liability, including management of hazardous materials to avoid or minimize liability. Our Chicago office lawyers have extensive experience in all aspects of environmental law, encompassing Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act issues, Superfund and RCRA questions, and matters involving all of the other major environmental statutes and regulations.
We represent numerous government contractors in every aspect of federal and state government contracts. The practice encompasses litigation of disputes relating to contract performance, contract award controversies (bid protests), civil and criminal False Claims Act investigations and litigation, and disputes between prime and subcontractors. Among other matters, lawyers in our Chicago office, together with lawyers from our Washington, D.C. office and other Sonnenschein offices, represent McDonnell Douglas Corporation (now a subsidiary of The Boeing Company) in the largest contract claim ever brought against the United States Government—the termination of the contract between the Government and McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics Corporation for the design and development of the Navy's A-12 stealth attack aircraft.
Sonnenschein's diverse work in the health care area has included representation of major medical centers, managed care operations, long-term care facilities, physicians and physician groups, consultants, medical schools, health care suppliers, and health care insurers. Lawyers in our Chicago office have represented virtually all of the major hospitals in the Midwest on diverse matters, including mergers and acquisitions, financing, integrated delivery system development, Medicare fraud and abuse, and many other issues.
Sonnenschein is well known, on a national basis, for its extensive representation of insurers on a wide variety of litigation, counseling, and transactional matters. Lawyers in our Chicago office are an integral part of Sonnenschein's national insurance practice and handle numerous matters in the Midwest for insurers such as Allstate, American International Group, Travelers Insurance Companies, The Prudential Insurance Company of America and Fireman's Fund.
Our Chicago office insurance lawyers are highly experienced in dealing with all types of personal lines of insurance as well as policies in the following areas: comprehensive general liability, directors and officers, professional malpractice, group and individual life and disability, excess, reinsurance, umbrella, and surety. Our representation of insurers includes extensive work on litigation, including coverage disputes, bad faith defense, insurance fraud, regulatory matters, life insurance sales practices, and commercial cases that involve issues unique to the insurance industry. We also have counseled insurers on many non-litigation matters, such as claims handling and investigation, policy revisions, oversight of outside counsel and review of Cumis fees.
We have a significant practice in Illinois and nationwide involving insolvency and related matters, including bankruptcy cases and counseling for structuring transactions and loan workouts outside of bankruptcy. Our lawyers have handled significant matters on behalf of individual creditors (including institutional lenders and investors as well as unsecured creditors), creditor committees, debtors, and trustees. We have assisted clients in drafting and negotiating Chapter 11 plans as well as in other bankruptcy court proceedings. Our lawyers have counseled institutional clients with respect to debtor-in-possession financing issues, including lending in highly regulated fields such as energy and telecommunications. In addition, we have assisted clients on matters involving bankruptcy implications relating to aircraft financing, intellectual property licenses, and the acquisition of assets from a bankrupt's estate.
Sonnenschein provides complete legal services related to the development, use, and protection of the full range of intellectual property. The firm's Intellectual Property and Technology Practice includes several licensed patent attorneys with technical expertise in the electronic, computer and telecommunications disciplines; in the aerospace and mechanical design and engineering arts; and in the fields of chemistry, pharmaceutical and biotech products and processes. Our Chicago office includes litigation specialists, whose practice focuses on litigating all aspects of intellectual property law in state and federal courts. We regularly join forces, as necessary, with other Sonnenschein attorneys who concentrate in areas such as litigation, corporate law, franchising, international trade, antitrust, and taxation.
We regularly represent the creators, inventors, owners, licensees, and users of patented products and services (including high technology), trademarks, copyrights, and other intellectual property. Our practice includes significant litigation involving intellectual property rights, as well as the prosecution of patent, trademark and copyright applications before relevant government agencies, both domestically and internationally. We have handled proceedings concerning intellectual property matters before state and federal trial courts throughout the United States, numerous appellate courts (including the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit), and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Our Chicago office lawyers have a significant international business and trade practice, which includes advising clients entering foreign or U.S. markets and ongoing activities thereafter. We also have worked with clients on issues such as export rules and regulations, mergers and acquisitions, corporate formation, trade legislation and immigration help. In addition, Sonnenschein has established relationships with attorneys, accounting firms and consultants around the world. We are the Illinois member of Lex Mundi, the association of over 150 independent law firms spanning the globe. Such professional ties enhance our ability to serve our clients.
Our Chicago office labor and employment practice group has represented clients across the country on matters involving union organization, arbitration, collective bargaining, wage and hour, OSHA, wrongful termination and discrimination litigation, general human resources concerns, and management training in litigation prevention and human resources problems. The Labor and Employment group keep clients apprised of case law and statutory and regulatory developments through its annual seminar entitled "Managing to Prevent Employment Liability," roundtables on specific issues and e-mail and newsletter updates.
Sonnenschein has substantial experience in all facets of products liability work and service as national, regional and project counsel for products litigation. Our attorneys have special knowledge and expertise in various disciplines, including biological sciences, engineering, physical geography, physical science and medical science.
Sonnenschein has the depth and diversity to develop the most cost-effective and success driven strategy for every engagement. Whether it is a state or nationwide class action, a bet-the-company case, and action involving a catastrophic injury, a high profile or public relations recall or lawsuit, a mass tort event, a multi-district litigation (MDL) proceeding, a single injury case, a matter on appeal, the attorneys of our Products Liability Group have the know-how to handle and successfully resolve our clients' cases. We also offer preventive counseling, risk management, business contingency planning, and post-litigation analytical services to evaluate past and potential issues and problems in order to ward off future difficulties arising out of our clients' products or operations.
Sonnenschein's combination of nation-wide depth in experienced real estate lawyers and long-standing expertise in all real estate-related legal disciplines, such as tax and environmental law, distinguishes us from other law firms. Sonnenschein is one of a small number of firms in the country capable of handling sophisticated multistate real estate transactions on an efficient and expeditious basis, acting in many cases both as primary and local counsel.
Sonnenschein has long been a preferred law firm for the largest institutions financing the commercial real estate industry -- such as Prudential and Citicorp. Many of our clients are today's leaders in finance, accessing the capital markets for commercial real estate and other real estate transactions. In addition, Sonnenschein nationally represents industry members in ownership and development transactions, from shopping centers to low income housing. Sonnenschein offers high-quality, efficient legal support to all members of the commercial real estate industry.
Our Chicago office tax practice group engages in all types of corporate and general business transactions. Our tax lawyers are particularly experts in structuring and advising clients on highly complex corporate acquisitions and dispositions, financing techniques, partnerships and other joint ventures, real estate and foreign transactions. We also have extensive experience in tax controversies including tax litigation in state courts, the United States Tax Court and various appellate courts.
Lawyers in our Chicago office regularly provide estate planning services to clients including tax minimization planning, use of disclaimers, life insurance planning, qualified plan distribution planning, generation-skipping tax planning, charitable planning, liquidity planning, asset protection planning and business succession planning. We also provide estate and trust administration services including all aspects of the probate process, advice regarding administration of trusts, preparation of federal and state income tax, estate tax and gift tax returns, and representation of individuals, trusts and estates in disputes with the IRS or state tax authorities.
Sonnenschein's Chicago office lawyers specialize in all aspects of state and federal white collar criminal litigation, as well as civil litigation involving allegations of criminal misconduct or other types of malfeasance. These lawyers represent corporate and individual clients who are either the subject of ongoing grand jury investigations or named defendants in criminal indictments. This work covers the entire range of white collar crime, including tax and securities violations, antitrust violations, health care fraud, environmental violations, government contractor fraud and mail and wire fraud. In the civil area, the group represents corporate and individual clients in cases involving civil RICO claims or other allegations of fraud, including cases brought on behalf of clients who have been victimized by such conduct.
Click on any of our practice areas for a detailed list of our representative matters.
<< Back
|
