News


  • ILLINOIS APPELLATE COURT VICTORY.  RCC won a significant appeal for the Director of the Illinois Division of Insurance in his capacity as Liquidator of three insolvent insurance companies.  McRaith v. BDO Seidman, 391 Ill. App. 3d 565, 909 N.E. 2d 310 (2009).  The court unanimously reversed the dismissal of the Liquidator's professional negligence claims against the insurance companies' former auditor, rejecting the auditors' imputation-based in pari delicto defense.  Recognizing that insurance company receivers/liquidators are "statutorily charged with preserving the rights of [] policyholders and creditors," the court found it would be "unlawful, as well as illogical" to impute to the Liquidator the misconduct of the insurance companies' former CEO/Board Chairman who looted the companies.  The Court held:  "the imputation doctrine does not apply to the director of the State of Illinois Division of Insurance when acting as an insolvent insurance company liquidator under the statutory authority provided by the Illinois Insurance Code."  The court also agreed with RCC that the "sole owner" doctrine does not apply to insurance companies because of the unique regulatory environment in which they operate.  The decision sets an important precedent for insurance company liquidators, who frequently face imputation-based in pari delicto affirmative defenses from third-party service provider defendants.  
  • RCC's Aleeza Strubel presented a session entitled "Harrassment Law Update:  What Employers Need to Know About Strict Liability for Sexual Harrassment by Supervisors and Other Increasing Liability Risks," at a two-day Employment and HR Forum for human resources specialist, managers and attorneys held in Chicago.  The Forum was organized by the Council on Education in Management.
  • RCC's Robert Margolis was a panelist for PEN TO PRESS: the Fine Print in Self-Publishing, an all-day program addressing the legal and business aspects of emerging publishing options.  He was on the panel "Fact v. Fiction:  Defamation and Rights of Privacy and Publicity," and spoke on privacy and publicity rights issues faced by authors and publishers.  The program was co-sponsored by Lawyers for the Creative Arts and John Marshall Law School.
  • RCC's Fay Clayton was profiled in Today's Chicago Woman magazine.
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  • Several RCC lawyers have been chosen to play key roles in important legal and civic organizations.  Fay Clayton was named a member of Senator Dick Durbin's Bipartisan Screening Committee for Federal Judges, U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals for the State of Illinois, which will recommend candidates for those vital jobs to Senator Durbin and President Obama.  Philip Curley was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Association of Insurance Receivers.  Cindy Hyndman was selected to serve on the Board of Advisors of the Chicago Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society.  And Robert Margolis was selected to serve on the Board of Directors of Lawyers for the Creative Arts.  
  • ANOTHER SUPREME COURT VICTORY (this time as amicus curiae).   By a vote of 9-0, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Bridge v. Phoenix Bond & Indemnity Co. that plaintiffs in civil RICO cases with mail or wire fraud predicate acts need not prove that they personally relied on defendants' misrepresentations; they need only show that their injuries were proximately caused by the misrepresentations, even if a third party relied on them.  This was the exact position taken in the amicus curiae brief RCC filed on behalf of the International Association of Insurance Receivers ("IAIR").  The Court's ruling is a major victory for IAIR, whose members are now free to pursue RICO claims against malefactors who loot insurance company assets by making misrepresentations to third-party insurance regulators.  The Court's opinion is here and RCC's amicus brief is here.
  • SUPREME COURT VICTORY.  RCC just won a major victory for civil rights plaintiffs in the United States Supreme Court.  By a vote of 7 to 2, the Court ruled in the case of CBOCS West, Inc. v Humphries that Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 allows claims for retaliation.  The details are here. 
  • RCC obtained a $9 million settlement for victims of workplace racial harassment. The settlement, which was reached in the midst of trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, also included a tough consent decree, which includes five years of independent oversight and monitoring of defendant International Truck & Engine Co.
  • RCC won a $1.2 million judgment for Chicago-based Stratego Consulting, which was wrongly denied full compensation by one of its clients. The judgment resulted from a week-long bench trial in the Circuit Court of Cook County.
  • RCC was designated lead trial counsel in a major securities fraud class action that settled on the eve of trial for $190 million. The settlement was approved by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in September 2007.
  • RCC won a key employment discrimination appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. In Sylvester v. SOS Children’s Villages, Illinois, 453 F.3d 900 (7th Cir. 2006), the court clarified that plaintiffs can prove retaliation under the “direct method” using circumstantial evidence. After this victory, RCC obtained a favorable settlement for the plaintiff.
  • In September 2007, RCC and its co-counsel obtained over $60 million of recoveries in federal asset forfeiture actions on behalf of seven insolvent insurance companies that were victims of a complex looting and fraud scheme. Over $45 million in in additional funds have been recovered in litigation settlements in related cases, on most of which RCC served as lead or co-lead counsel.