More than half of the lawyers in all of our offices concentrate in various aspects of our litigation practice. The Litigation Practice Group is headed by Michael H. Barr (New York).  The lawyers who head the litigation practice in each of our offices are: Robert C. Johnson (Chicago), Jim Moeller (Kansas City), Ivor E. Samson (San Francisco), Robert F. Scoular (Los Angeles), Reid L. Ashinoff (New York), Stephen H. Rovak and Roger K. Heidenreich (St. Louis) and Joshua G. Berman (Washington, D.C.).

Our lawyers in every office handle major litigation.  In many instances, the lawyers in our various offices work jointly on major litigation matters.  This multi-office coordination allows us to avoid unnecessary duplication of expertise while providing clients with cost-effective legal services of the highest quality.

Our practice covers a full range of commercial litigation services.  Our litigators handle cases in federal and state courts throughout the country as well as before regulatory agencies at both the state and federal level, arbitrators, and other extra-judicial forums.

Our litigators are active participants in organizations such as the American Bar Association and the National Institute for Trial Advocacy.  Litigators from Sonnenschein also speak and write extensively on a wide variety of topics involving litigation, from procedural rules and trial techniques to novel jurisprudential developments.  Our litigation ranks include numerous former judicial clerks, former prosecutors and lawyers from other governmental agencies.

Litigation Subgroups
Sonnenschein’s Litigation Practice Group is comprised of seven subgroups:

• Antitrust, Trade Regulation and Franchising
• Financial/Securities
• Insurance
• Intellectual Property and Technology
• Products and Professional Liability
• Real Estate and Construction
• White Collar Criminal/Federal Regulatory/Government Contracts

Representative Matters
These summaries illustrate the types of sophisticated matters the Litigation practice regularly handles.

Antitrust, Trade Regulation and Franchising

• Representation of The Allstate Corporation in the highly publicized federal antitrust suit filed in California against several major insurers by 19 state attorneys general, and in numerous related class actions filed by private plaintiffs. The case alleged a "global conspiracy" to reduce coverage and raise prices of commercial general liability insurance.
• Representation of Sara Lee Corporation, as antitrust counsel, in its $570 million acquisition of Playtex Apparel, Inc., which resulted in Sara Lee becoming the world’s largest producer of women’s intimate apparel. Our lawyers persuaded the U.S. Department of Justice not to challenge the acquisition, although it raised potential antitrust issues in both the U.S. and Canada. In addition to handling all the U.S. antitrust aspects of the acquisition, Sonnenschein also coordinated the activities of Sara Lee’s Canadian and European antitrust counsel.
• We represented McDonald’s Corporation in successfully challenging the applicability of Iowa’s new franchising law. This decision could have widespread impact on the franchising industry since Iowa’s law was seen as a model for other states interested in expanding the rights of franchisees. In addition, we regularly counsel McDonald’s with respect to the application of federal and state laws to marketing, pricing and other operational policies. We also are actively engaged in all phases of the development of Leaps & Bounds, Inc., a child/family activity center being developed on an experimental basis by a McDonald’s subsidiary.

• Successful representation of Hewitt Associates in a landmark United States Supreme Court decision stemming from a series of actions filed by former employees of Kaiser Steel Corporation seeking to recover losses sustained when the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation terminated Kaiser’s retirement plan, following Kaiser’s bankruptcy. Adopting the reasoning set forth by Sonnenschein, the Supreme Court ruled that, under ERISA, employee benefit plan participants cannot pursue civil actions for damages against nonfiduciaries who provide services to an employee benefit plan, when the service providers allegedly participated knowingly in a fiduciary breach under ERISA.
• Representation of Country Life Insurance Company in a legal proceeding brought by the Illinois Department of Revenue for back taxes on interest income deducted in connection with the subtraction modification for interest on federal tax obligations. In 1984, Congress changed the taxation of insurance companies regarding the inclusion of interest as taxable income. However, since Illinois did not change its own tax laws to conform with the federal change, life insurance companies continued their practice of deducting interest on these federal obligations from their taxable income for Illinois state tax purposes. As a result, Illinois began pursuing Country Life and other major insurers for back taxes on interest income that they had deducted from their taxable income since 1984. After securing an injunction preventing the State of Illinois from collecting the disputed taxes for two tax years, Sonnenschein lawyers successfully convinced the Illinois Department of Revenue that, based on the facts, it could not prevail. We are continuing to represent Country Life in a second, similar case involving two additional tax years.
• Representation of The Prudential Life Insurance Company of America in successfully protecting its billion dollar secured position in the Carter Hawley Hale bankruptcy and its multimillion dollar commercial mortgage in a New Jersey bankruptcy. Within four months of entering the four-year-old New Jersey case, Sonnenschein convinced the bankruptcy trustee to consent to lifting the automatic stay that had prevented Prudential from foreclosing its mortgage.
• Representation of Bank One Corporation in five separate lawsuits in connection with the reorganization of its $500 million real estate fund. This series of lawsuits involved disputes with the Comptroller of the Currency and fund participants regarding claims based upon ERISA, common law principles of trusts, and the National Bank Act.
• Representation of VMS Realty Partners and numerous related entities in connection with the settlement of dozens of cases arising from VMS’s liquidity problems. These cases ranged from multibillion dollar securities class actions, including 22 class actions filed or multidistricted to federal court in Chicago brought by investors in five real estate investment trusts and three publicly-offered limited partnerships, to numerous state court foreclosure and creditor actions.
• Representation of the former CEO and board chairman of Beverly Hills Savings & Loan Association in suits against former officers and directors brought by the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation and a stockholder class for alleged mismanagement and securities law violations. Sonnenschein served as lead counsel for the director and officer defendants and was instrumental in settling the case without any officer or director contributing any personal funds.
• Representation of ITT Commercial Finance Corp., ITT, and related entities and individuals (including the chairman of ITT) in a lender liability suit filed by 156 plaintiffs against ITT and various of its subsidiaries, divisions, officers, and employees. Sonnenschein lawyers obtained a dismissal of the complaint (which sought $1.3 billion in damages) and a judgment of $1.4 million on counterclaims. Both decisions were upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari.
• Representation of various underwriting firms, including Goldman Sachs, and Merrill Lynch, in litigation regarding public offerings of New York Stock Exchange companies, such as Fruit of the Loom and FMC Corporation. Representation of the issuer Salton Maxim in 13 class actions challenging the adequacy of Salton’s IPO disclosures. Co-counsel to IBM Corporation in its successful defense against a securities case claiming alleged misrepresentations and omissions in SEC filings and public statements IBM made in 1991. The case was dismissed with prejudice.

Insurance

• Representation of The Prudential Insurance Company of America in all sales practices matters. In 2002, Sonnenschein lawyers won a gratifying victory on behalf of Prudential when a Miami federal jury awarded only $66,105 to two plaintiffs, finding that Prudential had not committed any fraud in connection with their life insurance purchases. The jury also found no liability on Prudential’s part and awarded nothing to two other plaintiffs. Two more plaintiffs had all of their claims dismissed before jury consideration commenced. All six of the plaintiffs had opted out of a 1997 class action settlement in which Prudential paid out $4 billion, and had sought billions of dollars in punitive damages.
• Our lawyers were instrumental in negotiating a global settlement of claims against Prudential. Sonnenschein negotiated initially with the Multistate Task Force, a group representing insurance regulators of more than thirty-five states, and subsequently with a group of the principal class action plaintiffs’ firms in the country. The settlement sets up a unique alternative dispute resolution process designed to ensure that each policyholder who was harmed in the purchase of a Prudential policy can obtain appropriate remediation from the company.
• Representation of The Travelers Insurance Co. in numerous insurance coverage litigation matters, including major hazardous waste coverage cases involving such insureds as Fairchild Camera & Instrument (now part of National Semiconductor), Signetics Corp., Bridgestone/Firestone, The Budd Company, Tecumseh Products Co., Monsanto, Emerson Electric Co., White Consolidated Products, Deere & Co., Household International and Amoco. We are representing Travelers in connection with litigation with Eljer Manufacturing, Inc., and United States Brass Corporation for coverage of claims arising from allegedly defective polybutylene piping systems. We also represented Travelers in a highly publicized class action that sought to obtain insurance coverage for manic depression and related conditions through the reclassification of these conditions as physical, rather than mental, disorders. Sonnenschein defeated the motion for class certification, which resulted in the individual plaintiffs subsequently dropping all claims against our client.
• Representation of American International Group in a variety of cases involving hazardous waste claims, including cases involving Kelly-Moore Paint Co. and the City of Fresno and Dow Chemical Co.
• Representation of American Empire Surplus Insurance Co. in numerous environmental insurance matters throughout the United States. The insureds include such companies as Aerojet General Corporation, Rohr Industries, Rheem Manufacturing Co., World Oil Co. and Carboline Company.
• Representation of Crum & Forster in connection with various coverage matters, including litigation against Watercloud Bed Company involving a claim for coverage for a patent claim under the advertising injury provisions of its liability policy.
• Representation of Country Mutual Insurance Company in connection with hazardous waste claims and claims under first-party property insurance policies for alleged property damage arising from the presence of asbestos in buildings.
• As amicus curiae counsel to various insurance industry trade associations. For example, on behalf of the Association of California Insurance Companies, Sonnenschein helped convince the California Supreme Court to review a major case involving the constitutionality of punitive damages under California law as well as the appropriate protections required for the imposition of punitive damage issues. And on behalf of the Health Insurance Association of America, we assisted in convincing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit that the common law rule of construing ambiguities against insurance companies does not apply in cases involving insured ERISA plans.

Intellectual Property and Technology

• Representation of Steven Spielberg, Michael Crichton, Anne-Marie Martin, Universal City Studios, Inc., Warner Bros., and Amblin’ Entertainment, Inc. as co-counsel in a copyright infringement suit. A screenwriter claimed the 1996 blockbuster film "Twister" was based on his screenplay "Catch the Wind" and sought damages in excess of $150 million. After a three-week trial and only two hours of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict which fully exonerated each of our clients.
• Representation of Sands, Taylor & Woods against The Quaker Oats Co. in the remand hearing on damages related to Quaker’s infringement of Sands, Taylor’s "Thirst-Aid" trademark in its Gatorade advertising. The remand proceeding resulted in an award to Sands, Taylor of $20.6 million, reportedly the largest damages award in history in a trademark infringement case.
• Representation of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Seymour Hersh defending libel claims brought by former Prime Minister of India, Moraiji Desai, based on allegations that Hersh’s book The Price of Power: Kissinger - The Nixon White House linked Desai to the CIA. The Seventh Circuit affirmed our jury verdict for Hersh.
• Representation of McDonald’s Corporation to challenge Quality Inn’s proposal to open budget motels under the name "McSleep Inns" and to challenge Arche Technologies, Inc.’s use of a "Golden Arch" trademark on computers. Victories in both cases further extended McDonald’s family of "Mc" marks beyond the field of food products and restaurants.
• Representation of Chicago Tribune Company, Tribune Media Services, Inc. and the author of Dick Tracy in trademark infringement, unfair competition, libel and privacy actions in state and federal courts brought by owners of a record business with names identical to characters in a series of "Dick Tracy" strips.
• Representation of IBM with co-counsel in prosecuting Lanham Act and other trademark infringement claims against Comdisco, Inc. IBM alleges that Comdisco intentionally leased and sold non-IBM manufactured counterfeit memory cards bearing the IBM trademark for IBM’s high performance 3090 computer processors.

Products and Professional Liability

• Representation of American Home Products Corporation’s subsidiary Corometrics Medical Systems, a manufacturer of electronic fetal heart and other electronic monitors, and its Sherwood Medical Company subsidiary, a manufacturer of dental and medical needles and instruments.
• Representation of General Motors Corporation in cases concerning the manufacture and design of cars, trucks and their components, including brakes, steering mechanisms, wheels and seatbelts.
• Representation of GATX Corporation in cases arising out of the manufacture and maintenance of railroad tank cars.
• Representation of Westinghouse Electric Corporation in cases concerning electrical and other heavy equipment designed or manufactured by Westinghouse.
• Counseling and advising major food processing and retail distribution companies concerning product recall and tampering issues.
• Representation of the American Association of Blood Banks in litigation involving transfused blood contaminated by HIV and counseling regarding trade association liability arising out of the promulgation of industry standards and guidelines.
• Representation of Daubert Chemical Company in asbestos litigation.
• Representation of Perkins & Will in suits involving the allegedly faulty design of the Amoco building in Chicago.

Real Estate and Construction

• Representation of one of the world’s largest banks in a major foreclosure case that also included fraud, conversion, and breach of contract claims against the borrower, as well as substantial lender liability defenses and counterclaims that sought more than a billion dollars in compensatory and punitive damages against the bank. After a six-week bench trial in Indiana state court, the court issued a decision in favor of the bank on all claims. The litigation marked this foreign bank’s first major involvement with litigation in the United States.
• Representation of contractors, developers and architects in a wide range of construction contract and other disputes regarding a variety of large projects including bridge, tunnel, road, water reclamation plant, hospital, school, office, industrial, department store and residential construction or renovation projects.
• Representing a wide range of lenders and borrowers in connection with loan enforcement and lender liability issues including counseling, negotiation and litigation.
• Representing real estate investment advisors regarding liability and compliance issues and in regulatory and investor proceedings.
• Representing and counseling our clients regarding alternative dispute resolution procedures, such as arbitration and mediation.
• Representing clients in a wide range of other real estate-related litigation involving land use, zoning, contract rights, title disputes and commercial brokerage and landlord-tenant disputes.

White Collar Criminal/Federal Regulatory/Government Contracts

• Representation of McDonnell Douglas Corporation in the A-12 litigation, the largest claim ever brought against the U.S. Government. This litigation resulted from the Government’s termination, allegedly for default, of its contract with McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics Corporation for the design and development of the Navy’s A-12 stealth attack aircraft. Sonnenschein lawyers obtained a ruling that the Government’s termination was not for default, but for convenience, moving the litigation into the damages phase, which McDonnell Douglas won and later lost on appeal. Settlement negotiations in this 11-year legal battle are under way.
• Successful conclusion of a five-year Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of McDonnell Douglas’s financial reporting. In 1991, the SEC Enforcement Division began investigating the financial reporting and public disclosures made by McDonnell Douglas on the A-12 Program. The focus of the investigation switched in 1993 to McDonnell Douglas’s disclosure and financial reporting of the estimated costs at completion on the fixed price, full-scale design and development contract for the new generation transport aircraft for the U.S. Air Force — the C-17 Globemaster III. According to the SEC, in 1990, McDonnell Douglas knew, or should have known, that its estimate at completion on the C-17 Program was underestimated by $1 billion to $2 billion and, accordingly, should have taken an approximately $500 million loss on the Program as of December 31, 1990.
• In June 1996, following extensive presentations to the SEC by Sonnenschein, McDonnell Douglas and the SEC agreed to a settlement involving dropping all claims that McDonnell Douglas had violated the anti-fraud provisions of federal securities laws, all other allegations that impugned McDonnell Douglas’s good faith and business integrity, and any requirement that McDonnell Douglas restate its financial statements. Without admitting or denying any of the allegations against it and solely for purposes of settlement, McDonnell Douglas agreed to entry of an injunction enjoining it from violating certain reporting act provisions of the federal securities laws and to payment of a nominal civil penalty. The investigation concerning the A-12 Program concluded without any actions.
• Representation of McDonnell Douglas in a suit alleging mischarging of labor hours by its employees under government contracts for military aircraft. Sonnenschein lawyers moved for a protective order on the grounds that certain contacts by government attorneys and agents with McDonnell Douglas employees were prohibited by Rule 4.2 of the Missouri Rules of Professional Conduct, which governs communications with persons represented by counsel. The government contended, however, that the regulation promulgated by the Attorney General excepted federal government attorneys from the Missouri Rule. The United States District Court found for McDonnell Douglas, holding that the regulation was promulgated without statutory authority. This ruling is on appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. In the appeal, McDonnell Douglas’s position has been joined in by the Conference of Chief Justices, an association of the Chief Justices of the highest courts for each of the fifty States, the District of Columbia, and territories of the United States.
• Represented Prairie Farms Dairy, Inc. in a three-week federal criminal jury trial involving allegations of bid-rigging and price-fixing. The trial resulted in the acquittal of the company, its subsidiary and all four of its executives.
• Represented numerous employees and executives of Caremark International, Inc. during a four-year national investigation of alleged violations of state and federal anti-kickback laws. The firm also represented many of the same employees and executives in the ensuing civil litigation involving allegations of (in separate cases) securities violations, billing irregularities and other practices.
• Represented a major St. Louis hospital in a multi-year federal investigation of alleged violations of the Federal anti-kickback laws.
• Represented a major insulation company and its chief executive officer in a multi-year federal investigation of alleged price-fixing conducted by the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.
• Conducted internal investigations of four companies and represented each of the companies in separate grand jury investigations of alleged price-fixing or bid-rigging activities.
• Conducted an internal investigation of a major chemical manufacturing company and represented the company in a subsequent federal investigation of alleged false claims made in connection with a government contract.
• Represented a major hospital foundation defrauded of millions of dollars in insurance proceeds by an insurance agency.
• Represented two corporate executives in a federal appeal, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, from a price-fixing conviction.
• Represented medical supplies company in a grand jury investigation of alleged health care fraud.
• Represented the director and former president of an environmental products company indicted on charges of making false claims to the government in connection with a government contract.
• Represented an employee of a major oil company in a grand jury investigation of an oil spill.
• Developed or upgraded the codes of business conduct or internal compliance programs for numerous corporations.

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