Through my in-house work, I gained a great amount of knowledge relating to both the consumer products industry and the manufacturing industry. During my nearly six years at FMC Technologies, I was Assistant General Counsel with responsibility for a $600 million business unit. I oversaw all aspects of legal support for the business, including working on acquisitions, divestitures and other transactions, drafting and revising complex commercial agreements, managing my business unit’s litigation portfolio, and advising my corporate clients on how to best manage their business risk. As Assistant General Counsel for Newell Rubbermaid, I helped my corporate clients mitigate risk arising out of the sale of consumer products, including providing advice on issues such as antitrust and price discrimination, country of origin claims, marketing and advertising claims, import/export issues, labeling issues, and products liability issues. In addition, I assisted in drafting, revising and negotiating commercial agreements, managing my business unit’s litigation portfolio, and managing my business unit’s relationships with sales representatives and distributors.

I started my legal career as a law clerk for the Honorable Judge James B. Moran, then Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and subsequently worked as a litigation attorney for Jenner & Block and then Grippo & Elden.

My experience includes:

• Acting as lead counsel and drafting and negotiating deal documents for numerous multi-million dollar transactions.
  
  
• Overseeing complex commercial litigation, including lawsuits for theft of intellectual property, product liability, and breach of contract.
  
  
• Successfully negotiating the favorable settlement of multi-million dollar lawsuits.
  
  
• Drafting and revising agreements related to intellectual property, technology, licensing, sales, sourcing and manufacturing.
  
  
• Advising my clients on a broad range of employment issues, including drafting employment agreements, severance agreements and releases, termination of employees, investigation of complaints, and overseeing employment-related litigation.
  
  
• Advising my clients on compliance with complex regulatory schemes, such as antitrust laws, import and export laws, anti-boycotting regulations, and rules and regulations promulgated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
  
  
• Advising my clients on issues related to the sale of consumer products such as marketing and advertising claims, country of origin claims, and labeling issues.
  
  
• Advising my clients with respect to the management of sales representative, distributor and consulting relationships, including hiring and terminating same.
  
  
• Advising and training my clients on issues related to risk management, contract negotiation, improved contracting practices and protection of intellectual property.
  
  
• Arbitrating and mediating claims before the American Arbitration Association and JAMS.
  
  
• Drafting successful substantive motions and briefs for state and federal courts, including the   Seventh Circuit.
  
  
• Successfully litigating and resolving theft of trade secrets cases on behalf of a Fortune 500 client.
  
  

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