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Experience:
Michael Forde focuses on litigation. He handles complex, commercial litigation in state and federal courts and before various regulatory agencies, in cases involving contracts, securities, consumer fraud, real estate, white collar criminal defense, gaming and First Amendment litigation. He also handles internal investigations for clients.
Michael was listed in The Best Lawyers in America, for commercial litigation, in 2007 and 2008. Michael joined Mayer Brown in 1999. Previously, he served as Chief Legal Counsel to Illinois Comptroller Daniel W. Hynes (1999), Chief Counsel to the Transition Team for the Illinois Comptroller-Elect (1998-99), Law Clerk to the Honorable Mary Ann G. McMorrow of the Supreme Court of Illinois (1997-98), and Law Clerk to the Honorable Charles P. Kocoras of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (1996-97).
Notable Engagements:
Chicago Board of Trade: One of the principal outside attorneys for the Chicago Board of Trade and its parent company; advised on a broad range of litigation, regulatory, and corporate governance matters, including the historic 2007 merger between CBOT Holdings and Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings, the competing unsolicited takeover proposal for CBOT in the same period, and the related shareholder litigation; a variety of issues relating to the CBOT's 2005 restructuring and initial public offering; representing CBOT in its lawsuit against the Chicago Board Options Exchange Inc., in which the CBOT seeks to enforce its members' right to participate in the CBOE's announced plan to restructure and demutualize; that case, currently pending in Delaware Court of Chancery, is CBOT Holdings, et al., v. Chicago Board Options Exchange Inc., et al. and a related proceeding is pending before the SEC
Altria/Philip Morris, Inc.: Part of the team that represented Philip Morris Company in the successful appeal of a $10.1 billion award (the largest in Illinois history) in a consumer fraud class action tried in Madison County; represented Philip Morris in the appeal, in which the Illinois Supreme Court reversed the judgment and ordered the case dismissed; Price v. Philip Morris, Inc., 219 Ill. 2d 182 (2005)
Mesirow Financial and Mesirow Stein Real Estate: Representing Illinois Property Asset Management LLC (IPAM), a subsidiary of Mesirow Financial and Mesirow Stein Real Estate, in litigation against the Governor of Illinois arising from the state's attempt to terminate its $30 million contract with IPAM
Illinois Casinos: Representing jointly the four Chicago-area casinos in their constitutional challenge to recently-enacted legislation imposing a 3% tax on these casinos to benefit the Illinois Horse Racing Equity Trust Fund, Empress Casino Joliet Corp., et al. v. Topinka, et al.
Nicor Inc.: Represented Nicor Inc. and its subsidiaries in a variety of cases and regulatory proceedings, including derivative, securities fraud, and consumer fraud cases, which includes Olson v. Nicor Services, a consumer fraud class action in which the Cook County Circuit Court refused to certify a class
Sprint affiliate litigation: Tried two cases brought by three Sprint "affiliates" in the Delaware Court of Chancery and Cook County Circuit Court; these affiliates of Sprint Nextel Corporation are third parties who have the exclusive right to provide Sprint mobile service in certain large geographic areas; after Sprint Corporation merged with Nextel Communications, Inc., these affiliates filed separate suits against Sprint in the Delaware Chancery Court and Cook County Circuit Court alleging that the merger would result in a breach of their exclusivity rights; the Delaware case was tried in January 2006, and the Court of Chancery issued an injunction barring Sprint Nextel from engaging in certain marketing activities; the Illinois case was tried between March and July of 2006, and the Illinois court issued an injunction requiring Sprint Nextel to divest itself of the Nextel network and assets in our client's service area
Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Represented Harrah's in a range of commercial and constitutional litigation, including a constitutional challenge to the 1999 amendments to the Illinois Riverboat Gambling Act, in which Harrah's intervened in defense of the statute; the Illinois Appellate Court dismissed the challenge, and the case is now before the Illinois Supreme Court. Lake County Riverboat v. Illinois Gaming Board, 332 Ill. App. 3d 127 (2002), appeal granted, 202 Ill. 2d 672 (2003)
Ryerson Tull, Inc.: Represented Ryerson Tull in a number of real estate and commercial cases
The Enterprise Companies: Represented and advised The Enterprise Companies, one of the largest real estate developers in the Midwest, and its subsidiaries in a variety of regulatory matters
Represented numerous federal, state, and local campaign committees and candidates
Education:
University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, MBA, 1998, Georgetown University Law Center, JD, cum laude, 1996; Articles & Notes Editor, American Criminal Law Review, Georgetown University, AB, 1993. |
