News


  • FIFTH CIRCUIT VICTORY.  RCC won a major victory for the Mississippi Insurance Commissioner in his capacity as Receiver of three insolvent insurance companies looted by the notorious Martin Frankel.  Chaney v. ALA Acquisitions, Inc., 595 F.3d 219 (2010).  The court unanimously reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment on the Receiver's negligence claims against Dreyfus Service Corporation, a major financial institution through which Frankel looted and laundered over $200 million of the insurance companies' assets.  The court agreed with RCC that Dreyfus owed its insurance company customers a duty of reasonable care and that Dreyfus's efforts "to identify the origin, legitimacy, or ultimate destination of the funds passing through its accounts were . . . non-existent."  The court remanded the case for trial and denied Dreyfus's motions for rehearing and en banc review.
  • 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 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 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.