EXPERT WITNESS

Fred is an independent expert and can serve in a variety of legal capacities.

Expert in Litigation (with 40+ Years of Experience Presenting in Court and Writing Reports)

For more than 40 years, Fred Mendelsohn has represented clients in multiple interrelated areas: complex commercial litigation and dispute resolution; litigation involving fiduciaries, wills and trusts; labor and employment law; market channel matters involving dealers, distributors, and sales representatives; and the general representation of middle market businesses. Mr. Mendelsohn is a litigation member of several practice groups including his partner firm, serving as the co-chair of the Business Partner and Shareholder Dispute group, which represents individuals and businesses in disputes arising out of their relationships as shareholders, partners, members, and/or venture partners. He frequently appears before state and federal courts and in other forums across the country.

Fred’s experience encompasses a wide range of complex commercial litigation and dispute resolution matters, from shareholder and other ownership and governance disputes, to complex patent and international customs litigation, antitrust cases, and matters arising from financial transactions and intellectual property concerns (including patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, covenants-not-to-compete, licensing, and other protective agreements). Mr. Mendelsohn has also been involved in several construction cases, ranging from construction defects (including latent defect cases) to contract disputes and disputes involving design professionals and related subcontractors.

The diversity of Fred’s practice extends beyond those described above. He has, for example, handled a significant number of complex professional negligence cases and has represented attorneys in malpractice suits and professional misconduct proceedings. This aspect of his practice also extends to representing individual attorneys and law firms regarding separation of attorneys from their firms and the winding down of law practices.

Fred also represents individuals and corporate fiduciaries in litigation involving wills and trusts. These matters arise from issues including the construction and validity of wills and trusts, undue influence, breach of fiduciary duty, and seeking instructions and accountings and can furthermore involve the interpleader of assets subject to interest, rights, and ownership disputes. His work in this area intersects with his representation of life insurance companies with regards to death claims, beneficiary contests, contested payments and contract rights.

Mr. Mendelsohn has also, for nearly three decades, represented parties involved in labor and employment matters before administrative, state, federal and appellate courts. He has represented clients before the National Labor Relations Board and multiple state and federal administrative agencies, such as the Department of Labor, and the EEOC, and numerous state investigative and adjudicatory agencies that administer labor and employment laws. This work includes all legal aspects of union organization efforts, negotiating collective bargaining agreements, labor arbitrations (interest and alleged labor agreement disputes), and litigation relating to union organizational and decertification elections.

Prior to joining his current company, Fred Mendelsohn was a partner in a mid-sized commercial law firm, where he practiced for fifteen years, and prior to private practice he served as an assistant state’s attorney in the Financial and Government Fraud Task Force of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. 

EDUCATION
YEAR DEGREE SUBJECT INSTITUTION
1992
LLM
Taxation
The John Marshall Law School
1986
JD
Marquette University Law School
1983
JDBA, cum laude
Economics
Brandeis University
WORK HISTORY

For more than 40 years, Expert has represented clients in multiple interrelated areas: complex commercial litigation and dispute resolution; litigation involving fiduciaries, wills and trusts; labor and employment law; market channel matters involving dealers, distributors, and sales representatives; and the general representation of middle market businesses. Expert is a litigation member of several practice groups at firm, serving as the co-chair of the Business Partner and Shareholder Dispute group, which represents individuals and businesses in disputes arising out of their relationships as shareholders, partners, members, and/or venture partners. He frequently appears before state and federal courts and in other forums across the country.

ASSOCIATIONS & SOCIETIES

For more than 10 years, Expert has regularly served as a volunteer adjunct faculty member of the National Institute of Trial Attorneys (NITA), teaching younger attorneys the art and skill of trying cases. NITA is a leading and highly reputable provider of legal advocacy skills training, having pioneered the learning-bydoing methodology for legal skills in the 1970s.

Expert has served on ad hoc committees for several not-for-profit ventures and has contributed to the programs sponsored by the Illinois Supreme Court’s Committee on Professionalism.

Expert has presented at the National Business Institute, on topics such as “Business Partner and Shareholder Disputes.” He speaks and writes on legal topics related to his practice, and he authors a regular column, “Legal Watch,” for Industrial Distribution Today, a bimonthly business magazine serving the industrial distribution market.

LICENSES & CERTIFICATIONS

Illinois
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Trial Bar)
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
Courts across the United States on cases, pursuant to local rules

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

fiduciary litigation, insurance litigation, business dispute resolution, business divorce, professional negligence, attorney malpractice, collective bargaining, intellectual property, life insurance, fraud, compliance, contract dispute, corporate governance, professional liability, prosector misconduct, prosecutorial ethics, breach of fiduciary duty, wills and trusts, labor and employment, labor agreement disputes, economic damages