• Board Member, Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, 2019-2023

• Chairman, Illinois International Port District Board, 2011-19

• Economic Club of Chicago

• Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, Board of Trustees, 2008-14; Chairman, Leadership Advisory Council, 2005-08

• St. Xavier University, Board of Trustees, 2008-11

• St. Ignatius College Prep, Development Committee, 2006-present

• “The White House Counsel and Whitewater: Government Lawyers and the Scope of Privileged Communications” 16 Yale Law and Policy Review 109 (1988).

• “The Exclusionary Rule at Sentencing: New Life Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines?” 33 American Criminal Law Review 379 (1996).

• 2012-present. Managing Partner, Forde & O’Meara LLP

• 1999-2012. Mayer Brown LLP, Chicago, Illinois (including serving as a co-chair of its commercial litigation practice group)

• 1999. Chief Legal Counsel to Illinois Comptroller Daniel W. Hynes

• 1998-99. Chief Counsel to the Transition Team for the Illinois Comptroller-Elect

• 1997-98. Law Clerk to the Honorable Mary Ann G. McMorrow of the Supreme Court of Illinois

• 1996-97. Law Clerk to the Honorable Charles P. Kocoras of the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois

• University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, M.B.A. 1998

• Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., cum laude 1996; Articles & Notes Editor, American Criminal Law Review

• Georgetown University, A.B. 1993

• Frost v. DMMD II LLC, et al.: We represented the real estate developer defendant in this trial in the Circuit Court involving claims of breach of contract, negligence, and nuisance.  We obtained a judgment in favor of our client on all counts.

• Rahm Emanuel Residency Litigation:  We were trial and appellate counsel for then-candidate Rahm Emanuel in the litigation challenging his qualifications to run for Mayor of Chicago.  The Supreme Court of Illinois unanimously reversed the Appellate Court and affirmed the Hearing Officer’s recommendation that Mr. Emanuel was qualified to run for Mayor.

• City of Chicago FOIA Litigation:  We were Mayor Emanuel’s personal counsel in two lawsuits in which various organizations sued under FOIA to obtain access to Mayor Emanuel’s personal emails and text messages.  The judge required Mayor Emanuel to produce only a small fraction of his emails but largely upheld our objections to producing anything more.

• Leading Global Law Firm: We were co-counsel for one of the world’s largest law firms in a series of related cases filed in the Cook County Circuit Court.  We obtained summary judgment for our client in one, and the others settled promptly.

• Sprint Affiliate Litigation Arising from Sprint-Nextel Merger. Tried two cases on behalf of three Sprint affiliates in Delaware and Illinois arising out of Sprint’s acquisition of Nextel, a competing telecommunications company, in breach of the parties’ affiliate agreements. In Delaware, the Court of Chancery issued an injunction barring Sprint Nextel from engaging in certain marketing activities. In Illinois, the Circuit Court of Cook County issued an injunction requiring Sprint Nextel to divest itself of the Nextel network and assets in our client’s service area.

• Sprint Affiliate Litigation Arising from Sprint-Clearwire and Sprint-Virgin Mobile Transactions. Represented three Sprint affiliates in litigation in Delaware and Illinois that sought to enjoin the closing of an $11 billion transaction in which Sprint planned to acquire a majority interest in a new competing telecommunications company in breach of the parties’ affiliate agreements. When Sprint announced that it was acquiring Virgin Mobile USA, Inc., we filed another lawsuit on behalf of the affiliates in Illinois seeking to enjoin the closing of the Sprint-Virgin transaction.

• Price v. Philip Morris: We acted as co-counsel in a successful appeal to the Supreme Court of Illinois, obtaining a reversal of a $12 billion judgment that had been entered by a downstate Illinois court against Philip Morris.

• Chicago Board of Trade Demutualization Litigation: We successfully represented the Chicago Board of Trade and its Directors in litigation in the federal, Illinois, and Delaware courts over the CBOT’s demutualization.

• CME Group, Inc., et al. v. Chicago Board Options Exchange, Inc. et al.:  We represented the class of CBOT members in this lawsuit that arose when the CBOE attempted to terminate the CBOT members’ ownership and trading rights on the CBOE.  The litigation involved proceedings in the Delaware Court of Chancery and before the SEC.  We obtained a settlement for our clients of cash and stock worth $1 billion.

• LAMPERS v. CBOT Holdings, et al.: We represented the CBOT and its Directors in this shareholder lawsuit litigation in the Delaware Court of Chancery resulting from the CBOT’s Board approval of the merger with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and rejection of a competing proposal.  The case settled, the merger closed, and the merger created the largest futures exchange in the world and one of the largest companies in Chicago.

• Bates v. LP Manager, et al.:  We represent the investors in this lawsuit against the management companies for the Maple & Ash family of restaurants.

• Boeing v. Ten Oaks Management, et al.:  We represented this very successful family office in a lawsuit that Boeing filed in the Western District of North Carolina.  After protracted motion practice and discovery, Boeing settled the case.

• RMG Sports Group v. Merrill Lynch, et al.: This was a business tort case brought by a prominent sports agent against Merrill Lynch and one of its former employees.  Merrill Lynch hired us to represent its former employee.  The plaintiff settled on the eve of trial.

• City of Chicago v. DoorDash: We are co-counsel for DoorDash in this regulatory enforcement case filed by the City of Chicago, currently pending in the Northern District of Illinois.

• HP-A Berkeley v. DevorahCo, et al.: We represented the plaintiff joint venture (co-owned by Apollo Global Management) in this $20 million post-closing dispute over a large industrial real estate transaction.  After we prevailed on a string of important motions, the defendants settled.

Email: mforde@fordellp.com

Phone: 312-465-4850