Commercial Litigation

Commercial litigation is the resolution of business disputes through the courts: contract breaches, commercial conflicts, and other disagreements between companies or between a company and the parties it deals with. It calls for knowledge of commercial law and of the industry regulations that bear on a particular dispute, and it spans everything from early case assessment to trial and any appeal.

Disputes between businesses and the people they contract with, in state and federal court: a supply or distribution agreement terminated early, a purchase price or earn-out contested after a deal closes, a partner or member who says the operating agreement was breached and the fiduciary claims that follow. Most are contract cases at the core, with fraud, unjust enrichment or fiduciary theories pleaded around them, and most turn on documents the client already has. We take the case from the first hold notice through trial and collection.

No, and the contract usually answers the question before we do. An arbitration clause takes the dispute out of court; a prevailing-party fee clause changes who can afford to be wrong; a forum clause decides where. Where the choice is open, court is the better instrument when the client needs an injunction fast, since a temporary restraining order under Rule 65 can issue within days and bind the defendant for 14 days while a preliminary injunction is heard, or when third-party documents and witnesses matter, because a court's subpoena power is broader than an arbitrator's. Mediation belongs in nearly every matter, timed for the point after the documents have been exchanged and before the experts are paid, when both sides can see the case and neither has spent the money to try it.

By making the company's time the scarce resource we protect. The litigation hold is scoped to the custodians who touched the deal rather than to everyone with an inbox. A protective order under Rule 26(c) with an attorneys'-eyes-only tier keeps pricing and customer data away from a competitor's business people. Executives are deposed once, for the seven hours the rule allows, and the company's own testimony is given through a single prepared Rule 30(b)(6) witness so it speaks with one voice. At each stage the client sees the spend against the budget and the settlement range against the record, and the question of whether to keep going is asked out loud rather than assumed.

The first 30 days decide most of the cost. The hold goes out and the contract file is read for its forum, fee and notice-and-cure clauses, because a demand letter that skips a required cure period can be a breach of its own. The limitations position is checked for both sides' claims. The insurance program is reviewed and the carrier notified, since a claims-made policy covers only what is reported within the policy period and late notice can forfeit coverage. Once a complaint is served the clock is short: 21 days to answer or move in federal court, 30 days from service to remove, and in Illinois state court 30 days to appear. The assessment that comes out of those weeks sets the budget and the settlement range for everything after.

Yes, and we plan both before trial. A federal judgment cannot be enforced for 30 days after entry, and a stay beyond that requires a bond or other security under Rule 62; Illinois Rule 305 works the same way, with the bond sized to the judgment, costs and the interest expected during the appeal. On the collecting side, a federal judgment can be registered in any other district once it is final, and a state judgment is domesticated elsewhere under the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, which Illinois has adopted. Post-judgment interest runs the whole time, at nine percent on an Illinois judgment, which is often what finally brings a debtor to the table.