Illinois

Cases

• Elward et al. v. Electrolux Home Products, Inc. (N.D. Ill. 2020) - Defeated class certification for Electrolux in a consolidated putative class action in Illinois involving millions of the company's dishwashers.
• Won a landmark federal case in Illinois defining the obligations of lead and liaison counsel in multidistrict litigation.
• Won motion to compel plaintiffs' privilege documents in a legal malpractice dispute in Illinois and defended the motion to the Illinois Supreme Court.
• Kljajic et al. v. Whirlpool (N.D. Ill. 2017) - Defeated class certification amid allegations that 2,000,000 Whirlpool-made ovens were prone to overheat. WTO attorneys disqualified the plaintiffs' expert witness and successfully argued that the claims were overly broad and the plaintiffs' purported theories for failure were too many to achieve certification.
• Obtained four-figure midtrial settlement for Dana Corp. as plaintiff closed its case in Cook County, IL.
• Rehberger et al. v. Yahoo! (S.D. Ill. 2016) - Successfully resolved a putative class action against Yahoo! involving alleged violations of the Illinois Eavesdropping Statute.
• Won a defense jury verdict in a $31 million medical malpractice lawsuit in Illinois involving a newborn who developed sepsis, meningitis, and catastrophic brain damage. WTO then won the subsequent appeal (3-0 panel decision).
• Defended an investment advisory firm in Cook County, IL against a $10 million professional negligence claim. After a two-week trial, the jury found for the defendant.
• Represented a managing partner in a $5 million suit between law firm partners with respect to claims of fraud and mismanagement. After a two-week trial, WTO's client prevailed on fraud and mismanagement claims, and the Court ordered an accounting and liquidation of the firm.
• Mulcahy v. Rapid American (Ill. Cook Cnty. Cir.Ct.) - Won a jury verdict in Cook County, Illinois, for General Electric in an asbestos duty to warn case involving power plant land turbines.
• Munch v. Sears, Roebuck and Co. (N.D. Ill. Sept. 30, 2008) - Obtained dismissal of putative state consumer protection claims alleging that Sears failed to disclose that certain Whirlpool-manufactured washing machines contained defective electronic control boards and a design defect that caused them to develop moldy odors.
• Won the first asbestos wrongful death defense verdict for General Electric in Madison County, IL, one of the top "judicial hellholes" for corporate America as featured in The Wall Street Journal.