Restrictive Covenant & Other Employment Litigation
- Prosecuting and defending dozens of claims regarding breaches of restrictive covenants—including non-competition agreements (“non-competes”), non-solicitation agreements, confidentiality clauses, non-disparagement obligations, and associated claims of tortious interference, conspiracy and unfair business practices. These claims have ranged from covering individual senior executives to more than one hundred employees hired by a competitor, including in the retail mortgage lending, software development, financial services, FinTech, IT management, healthcare operations, entertainment, education, automobile servicing, insurance and insurance technology industries.
- Arbitration and negotiation of wrongful discharge claims brought by executives in the software, FinTech, automotive and mortgage industries.
Trade Secrets Litigation
Chad has represented companies and individuals in both prosecuting and defending claims regarding the misappropriation and misuse of significant trade secrets, . Representative matters include:
- Edgenet, Inc. v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. (7th Cir. 2011; Wis. 2012), in which Sidley obtained dismissal of a federal copyright claim and summary judgment on state court claims of misappropriation of trade secrets (including algorithms, data models and programming logic) and violation of restrictive covenants in litigation brought by Edgenet, a vendor of Home Depot, alleging that Home Depot and one of Edgenet’s former employees misappropriated Edgenet’s trade secrets in developing competing software for running Home Depot’s website, seeking more than $1 billion in damages.
- Obtaining dismissal with prejudice on the pleadings on behalf of clients in the telemedicine and online lab testing industries in a case alleging the misappropriation of trade secrets, including marketing processes (search terms, keywords and advertising design), automated processes (software code and software design) and financial information.
- Representing a home healthcare company in litigation regarding the alleged theft of its trade secrets by former employees.
Software Implementation Litigation
Chad has represented companies and individuals in significant disputes regarding failed, and allegedly failed, software implementations. Representative matters include:
- Representing a consulting firm in a significant arbitration seeking more than $1 billion in damages regarding breach of contract and fraud claims brought by a customer regarding the implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that experienced significant problems after the system went live.
- Defending consulting firm against putative class action consisting of hundreds of thousands of putative class members for negligence, breach of contract, fiduciary duty and products liability claims brought by end-users of a government claims submission system consultant helped design and implement.
- Representing a global pharmaceutical company in a dispute with its software implementation vendor regarding significant overruns and missed deadlines in a global ERP implementation.
- Assisting numerous software implementation consultants in successfully resolving breach and misrepresentation claims pre-litigation, including claims of missed deadlines, underperformance, staffing inexperienced or unqualified personnel, nonpayment or underpayment of fees, among others. Working with clients either to help terminate relationships or reset relationships with revised contractual conditions.
Tax Controversy
Chad has represented dozens of corporations and individuals in a variety of tax controversies, covering sales tax (retailer’s occupation tax and use tax), corporate and individual income tax, estate tax, franchise tax and utility tax, often representing new technology companies against efforts by state and local taxing authorities to apply 20th century tax laws to 21st century technology, including:
- City of Chicago v. Expedia Inc., et al., 2017 IL App (1st) 153402 (Ill. App. 2017), in which the Illinois Appellate Court reversed a $29 million judgment for unpaid hotel taxes against clients Expedia Inc., Hotels.com, and Hotwire.
- Obtaining dismissal on behalf of Lyft, Inc. of a case brought by the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau and other local entities in the Circuit Court of Cook County seeking to hold Lyft liable for not paying airport departure taxes applicable to taxis and limousines.
- Serving as national coordinating counsel for an online ticket marketplace, and serving as trial counsel in litigated disputes against State Departments of Revenue concerning sales tax liability, obtaining the voluntary dismissal of one action, and the circuit court reversal of an assessment, upheld by agency tax tribunal, of approximately $30 million.
- Hartney Fuel Oil Co. v. Department of Revenue, 2013 IL 115130 (Ill. Nov. 21, 2013), in which Sidley prevailed in a Protest Monies Act case on behalf of the Hartney Fuel Oil Company, brought against the Illinois Department of Revenue, protesting the Department’s $23 million assessment of Hartney for prior sales tax payments. Chad handled the trial and helped defend the trial judgment on appeal, culminating in affirmance by the Illinois Supreme Court in a case that invalidated Illinois sales tax regulations that had been in place for more than 50 years.
- Regional Transportation Authority v. United Airlines, Inc. et al. (Cook County, IL) & Regional Transportation Authority v. American Airlines, Inc. et al. (Cook County, IL), in which Chad was the lead litigator representing both United Airlines and American Airlines in separate lawsuits brought by the Regional Transportation Authority, alleging that each airline avoided paying tens of millions of dollars in sales taxes for jet fuel used at O’Hare through sourcing those sales to a lower tax jurisdiction in Illinois.
Material Breach of Contract Actions
Chad regularly represents companies in state and federal court as well as U.S. and International arbitration proceedings regarding significant breach of contract actions, including:
- Representing a global supplier in an arbitration brought by a customer alleging breach of contract relating to supply shortages and seeking more than $100 million in damages.
- Representing a global beverage manufacturer in international arbitration alleging breach of contract against a supplier for product defects.
- Numerous disputes between buyers and sellers in M&A and private equity transactions regarding purchase price adjustments and other post-closing disputes.
- Representing multinational corporation in litigation regarding breach of an agreement to share in hundreds of millions of dollars in environmental cleanup costs.
- Defending national bank against breach of contract claims regarding Chase’s sale of charged off consumer credit card debt, resulting in summary judgment and the award of attorney’s fees in Chase’s favor.
Consumer Class Actions and Consumer Protection Actions
Chad has defended consumer class actions, both at the trial level and on appeal and in conjunction with national Federal Multi-District Litigation, including:
- Wippman v. American Airlines, Inc. (Cook County, 2018), obtaining dismissal with prejudice on grounds of Airline Deregulation Act preemption in a putative class action seeking damages on a class basis in the United States under a European Union Regulation 261/2004, designed to compensate passengers for flight delays.
- De Bouse v. Bayer, 235 Ill. 2d 544 (2009), a victory on summary judgment, upheld on appeal in the Illinois Supreme Court in a certified economic loss class action brought under the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act, alleging that Bayer committed consumer fraud with respect to the marketing of the statin, Baycol, which victory was named one of the top three most significant product liability decisions of 2009 by Drug and Device Law.
- Representing Grubhub, Inc. in an action brought by the City of Chicago, alleging consumer fraud and unfair business practices relating to the company’s online ordering processes.
Internal Investigations
Chad has significant experience conducting a variety of corporate internal investigations throughout the United States and multiple foreign countries, involving instances of tax fraud, theft and embezzlement by executives, inquiries from regulators and law enforcement and alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, in the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico, Australia and Venezuela.
Federal and State Appellate Courts
Chad has also briefed and argued appeals before federal and state appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Seventh and Ninth Circuits, the Illinois Supreme Court, Alabama Supreme Court and numerous intermediate state courts of appeals.
