Charlie is a commercial litigator who represents plaintiffs and defendants in all phases of complex civil litigation, from pre-suit strategic development through trial and appeal. He has particular experience with healthcare fraud claims (e.g., involving drug pricing and payor reimbursement), corporate governance and deal litigation (e.g., fiduciary duty claims or disputes over indemnification, shareholder equity or control rights, or incentive-equity repurchases), commercial contract disputes (e.g., breach or restrictive-covenant claims), and securities fraud class actions. But his broad practice covers many types of civil litigation in federal and state courts across the country.
Charlie’s clients include healthcare, life-sciences, and technology companies, private equity firms and their portfolio companies, asset managers and financial services companies, and their principals. Those clients especially value Charlie’s sophisticated, creative litigation strategies; his ability to accurately anticipate developments and predict likely outcomes; his well-reasoned, practical advice; his strong advocacy and communication skills; and his service-oriented mindset.
Charlie also maintains an active pro bono practice, representing low-income clients in class action litigation, administrative agency proceedings, and other civil cases and advising non-profit organizations on public-interest litigation strategies. As part of his pro bono work, Charlie serves on the Junior Board of Chicago Volunteer Legal Services and co-directs the firm’s involvement in the Chicago Bar Foundation’s Investing in Justice Campaign.
Before joining the firm, Charlie served as a law clerk to the Hon. James B. Loken of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Before attending law school, Charlie worked as a paralegal in the Chicago office of an international market research company, where he focused on contract negotiation and drafting and intellectual property matters.
Experience
- Defending a national retail pharmacy in Chicago federal and state court against twenty-nine health plans’ claims that the pharmacy submitted fraudulent prices in millions of payment claims.
- Represented leading healthcare company in large indemnification dispute with company’s former parent, including by developing creative indemnity defenses that produced a favorable settlement. Advised the independent directors as the company responded to government investigations and private lawsuits (including False Claims Act suits) that alleged product defects and mislabeling.
- Represented a Fortune 250 company in a contract and consumer-fraud suit related to payment-card processing services and a data security incident, guiding client through extensive motion practice, discovery, and settlement negotiations and a six-day bench trial.
- Defended a surgical practice in a False Claims Act suit alleging violations of Medicare billing regulations. Briefed novel billing questions under CMS reimbursement regulations, securing first-impression court rulings, which resulted in favorable settlement.
- Represented buyer in expedited Delaware merger litigation over the application of “material adverse event” and ordinary-course clauses to a public target’s performance during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Represented Elliott Management Corp., the largest unsecured creditor in the Chapter 11 cases of Energy Future Intermediate Holding Company LLC and its affiliates, in a successful challenge to an administrative claim for a $275 million merger termination fee.
- Defended a cybersecurity company, facing claims that certain executives made misleading public statements about sales, through two successful dismissal motions and an appeal to the Ninth Circuit, which partly affirmed and partly reversed on narrowed claims.
- Defended a healthcare executive in a five-day bench trial over claimed restrictive covenant breaches.
- Represented a private equity fund asserting fraud and indemnification claims against a portfolio company’s sellers based on post-closing review of accounts-receivable against pre-closing representations and warranties.
- Represented a health care services company in a corporate-governance dispute with a joint-venture partner, culminating in a favorable settlement during trial preparations.
- On behalf of a pro bono client, briefed to the Illinois Supreme Court a novel issue related to Illinois’ FOIA statute.
- Part of a team that secured asylum for an African woman and her family facing threats of persecution and abuse in two origin countries.
- Part of a team that won sweeping relief for a class of adolescents suffering from mental illness, who were confined at the Iowa Boys State Training School and subjected to excessive and punitive use of solitary confinement and mechanical restraints.
- Secured a court order directing that a pro bono client receive a new agency hearing, after the prior hearing violated the client’s due process rights and the agency’s procedural rules.