I am a litigator who helps business clients and individuals make sure that a promise made to them is a promise kept.

Jeff represents individuals and businesses in the areas of business, commercial, insurance, real estate, banking and corporate governance, and fiduciary duty litigation.

He has litigated on behalf of clients in state and federal courts across the country, including New York, California, Florida, Hawaii, and Illinois. Jeff has specific experience representing clients nationally in commercial lease litigation, and has represented community banks in cases throughout the state of Illinois.

Services

Business Litigation

In courtrooms, agencies, and tribunals across the country, we pursue our clients’ interests–both cost-effectively and with positive results.

Credentials

Education

  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Law, 1989
    • J.D.
  • Miami University, 1986
    • B.A., cum laude

Memberships

  • Peoria County Bar Association
  • Illinois State Bar Association

Admissions

  • Illinois, 1989
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin, 2006
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, 2006
  • U.S. District Court, District of Colorado, 2005
  • U.S. District Court, Southern District of Illinois, 2002
  • U.S. Court of Federal Claims, 1997
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, 1996
  • U.S. District Court, Central District of Illinois, 1990

Professional Achievements

  • Illinois Leading Lawyers: "Leading Commercial Litigation Lawyers," 2023
  • Peoria Magazine, Leading Lawyers, 2023
  • Illinois Leading Lawyers, 2014-2023

Experience

Representative Matters

  • Represented a financial services firm in multiple arbitrations before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) against former employees, successfully obtaining awards on loans provided to the employees by the firm.

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  • Successfully resolved a breach of contract and fraud case brought by an Illinois municipality against our client, a nationally known manufacturer. The municipality asserted that the client's successful property tax protests had violated a redevelopment agreement the parties had entered into in connection with the municipality's creation of a Tax Increment Financing District encompassing the client's manufacturing facility. Edit
  • Successfully represented a local member agricultural cooperative in a corporate governance/membership dispute with a large regional agricultural supply cooperative operating in more than 40 states and Ontario, Canada. Edit
  • Recovered the full amount of a bank client's nearly $2MM embezzlement loss from the client's fidelity bond insurer. The loss was sustained as a result of an employee who embezzled over a 17-year period. We obtained a full recovery, notwithstanding the insurer's arguments that our client's alleged negligence was a cause of the loss.

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  • Successfully represented a bank that sustained a major fraud loss of several million dollars as a result of a complicated Ponzi scheme. Despite repeated denials of coverage by the client's insurance carrier, we were able to obtain full reimbursement of our client's loss. Edit
  • Represented a title insurance company in an action alleging that it failed to identify a utility easement for a gas main. The plaintiff/insured, which had purchased the property for the purpose of developing a high-end, residential subdivision, sought damages in excess of $500,000. The trial court awarded less than $5,000 in damages, which was affirmed on appeal by the Illinois Appellate Court. Edit
  • Successfully represented a bank client and obtained a judgment against a law firm for conversion of the bank's collateral. The law firm's client (an advertising business) and the bank executed loans and security agreements that granted the bank a secured interest in various collateral in the event of default. At the time, the third-party checks payable to the advertising business were deposited in the law firm's IOLTA account, the bank's security interest had attached, due to cessation of business operations. The trial court held, and it was affirmed on appeal, that the law firm could not establish as a matter of law that it was a holder in due course of the checks, and therefore, the law firm was liable to the bank for conversion. Edit
  • Obtained a summary judgment and a six-figure attorney's fee award in an action brought in Indiana by an automotive dealer-subtenant and the dealer-controlled landlord seeking to terminate our client's position as lessee/sub-lessor.

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  • Successfully represented the real estate subsidiary of a nationally recognized automotive manufacturer in an action brought by a dealer-tenant in state court in Hawaii, claiming that our client had tortiously interfered with the plaintiff's attempt to assign a lease.

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Community

Community

I have been a member of the board of directors of Heart of Illinois Big Brothers Big Sisters for nearly 10 years.