JEROLD S. SOLOVY, Chairman Emeritus of the Firm Publications · Professional Activities Chicago Office Office: (312) 923-2671 Fax: (312) 840-7671 Email: jsolovy@jenner.com  Add to Outlook Contacts

Jerold S. Solovy was Chairman of Jenner & Block from 1990-2007, and is currently Chairman Emeritus.  He is widely regarded as one of the preeminent appellate and trial lawyers in the country.  Mr. Solovy has regularly been cited in The National Law Journal as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America, most recently in 2006.

Mr. Solovy has extensive experience in successfully handling high stakes litigation, both at the trial and appellate levels, and has argued several cases before the United States Supreme Court.  As a member of the Firm’s Litigation Department, Mr. Solovy continues to focus on litigating complex business matters and insurance coverage issues, while litigating many high-profile intellectual property and securities cases.

Mr. Solovy has been repeatedly recognized for his career-long commitment to the highest ideals of the profession.  He is a 2007 recipient of The American Lawyer magazine’s fourth annual prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.  He was also recognized in 2007 as Chicago Lawyer’s Person of the Year.  Mr. Solovy also has been widely honored for his career-long commitment to pro bono representation.  In 2005, Mr. Solovy received the American Bar Association Section of Litigation’s prestigious John Minor Wisdom Public Service and Professionalism Award. 

Recent Past Trials

Most recently, Mr. Solovy successfully served as co-lead counsel for Coleman (Parent) Holdings (“CPH”) in its fraud suit against securities firm Morgan Stanley, No. 2003 CA 005045 AI (Fla. Cir. Ct. Dec. 8, 2004).  In May of 2005, the Florida jury unanimously awarded $604.33 million in compensatory damages and $850 million in punitive damages to CPH.  The court entered final judgment, including prejudgment interest, in the amount of $1.58 billion against Morgan Stanley for aiding and conspiring with Sunbeam Corp. to defraud CPH into selling CPH’s interest in The Coleman Co. Inc. to Sunbeam, a client of Morgan Stanley.  This verdict was named by Lawyers Weekly USA and The National Law Journal as their top jury verdict of 2005.  In 2007, an appeals court reversed the verdict in a 2-1 decision. The matter is currently pending before the Florida Appellate Court on the denial of CPH’s motion for a new trial based on Morgan Stanley’s discovery misconduct.

Mr. Solovy also helped negotiate, in 2006, a favorable settlement on behalf of HealthSouth Corporation in connection with a securities fraud class action brought by the company’s stockholders and bondholders in a federal courtroom.

In recent years, Mr. Solovy successfully represented the Illinois Attorney General in reducing the fees paid to law firms that had represented the State in the nationwide Tobacco Industry litigation from the requested $900 million to a total of $67.5 million.  In addition, he successfully argued SWIDA v. National City Environmental, 768 N.E.2d 1 (Ill. 2002), before the Illinois Supreme Court, a closely watched eminent domain case, in which a state-created body was not allowed to condemn private property in an economically distressed areas and to immediately transfer it to another on the premise that the land would be used in a more profitable manner.  This is one of the rare cases in the United States in which a private taking was declared unconstitutional.

During the early 2000’s, Mr. Solovy successfully represented the Boston-based Kennedy Family in Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. v. Kennedy, No. 98 C 1164, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10286, by obtaining a declaratory judgment against the mortgage-holding insurance company’s claim that $53 million in prepayment penalties were owed to it in connection with the sale of Chicago’s famed Merchandise Mart.  Weeks later, a trial team under his supervision won a $131 million jury verdict against DirecTV, Hughes Electronics and General Motors Corp. in a breach of contract lawsuit brought on behalf of General Electric Capital Corp; the award in GECC v. DirecTV, 94 F. Supp. 2d 190 (D. Conn. 1999), was the largest jury award in the State of Connecticut’s history.

Mr. Solovy also successfully represented Hitachi in several substantial patent infringement cases.  In 1995, he won an $88 million jury verdict for JMB Realty in a commercial dispute.

Appellate Work

Among the several cases Mr. Solovy has handled before the United States Supreme Court is Bolger v. Youngs Drug Products Corp., 463 U.S. 60 (1983), in which he helped set an important precedent involving commercial speech.  In 1865, a crusader named Anthony Comstock pushed a bill through a lame-duck Congress which prevented manufacturers of contraceptive devices from sending unsolicited advertisements through the mail.  In 1983, on behalf of his client, Youngs Drug, Mr. Solovy argued the law was an unconstitutional regulation of commercial speech.  The slightly modified Comstock Act had remained in force for more than a century until the statute was successfully challenged before the Supreme Court.

In Lexecon, Inc. v. Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes and Lerach, 523 U.S. 26 (1998), Mr. Solovy represented the Milberg Weiss firm before the Supreme Court of the United States, which was considering whether a federal district court conducting “pretrial proceedings” under 28 U.S.C. § 1407(a) may invoke section 1404(a) to assign a transferred case to itself for trial.  Ultimately, the Court ruled that a district court conducting such pretrial proceedings has no authority to assign a transferred case to itself for trial.

Mr. Solovy has also argued hundreds of high profile cases before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago and other federal appeals courts across the country, including Mills v. Electric Auto-Lite Co. (resolving 14 years of litigation involving the merger of two companies and reversing a $2 million damage award against a Jenner & Block client); Mite v. Dixon (upholding the invalidity of the Illinois Takeover Act); Tomczak v. City of Chicago (involving the right of the City of Chicago to fire an employee under the terms of the Shakman decree).

Mr. Solovy has appeared numerous times before the Illinois Supreme Court, including his successful argument in the above-mentioned SWIDA eminent domain case.  In Dunne v. Cook County Board, he helped uphold the veto power of the President of the Cook County Board.  Also, pursuant to his pro bono appointment as a Special Assistant Attorney General in People v. Kohrig, 113 Ill. 2d 384 (1986), Mr. Solovy successfully argued that the Illinois Supreme Court should uphold the state’s seat belt law, marking the first time any state Supreme Court had so ruled on a similar state law.

Likewise, Mr. Solovy has often appeared in important cases before the Illinois Appellate Court, including Torres v. Board of Election Commissioners, which involved a Chicago aldermanic election dispute that affected Mayor Harold Washington’s control of the City Council.

Pro Bono Work

Mr. Solovy has long been one of the most active participants and leaders in the Firm’s pro bono program.  In 2009, Jenner & Block was recognized as the number one law firm in the country for pro bono service by The American Lawyer for the second year in a row.  Under Mr. Solovy’s leadership, the Firm has also been honored with the prestigious Pro Bono Publico Award from the American Bar Association, the John C. McAndrews Pro Bono Award from the Illinois State Bar Association, and the 2005 Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year Award from the District of Columbia Bar.

Mr. Solovy has personally handled, on a pro bono basis, hundreds of criminal court cases as well as precedent-setting appeals for indigent individuals.  Three of those cases have gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, including Kirby v. Illinois, 406 U.S. 682 (1972) (regarding whether an indigent person is entitled to appointment of counsel for the purpose of conducting a pre-indictment lineup); Ralston v. Robinson, 454 U.S. 201 (1981) (involving the efficacy of sentencing of a juvenile offender to an adult sentence); and Reed v. Farley, 512 U.S. 339 (1994) (regarding whether an accused’s federal right to a speedy trial is violated when the state court fails to observe a 120-day speedy trial rule because no objection was raised at the time the trial date is set). 

Witherspoon v. State of Illinois, 391 U.S. 510 (1968) (argued by Albert E. Jenner), is one of Jenner & Block’s most significant pro bono efforts.  Mr. Solovy helped stop a planned state execution of Mr. Witherspoon on constitutional grounds, just a few weeks before the sentence was scheduled to be carried out.  “As Jerold Solovy studied the voluminous transcript of Witherspoon’s trial, he noticed that of 96 persons questioned during the selection of the jury 47 were excused for cause because they had scruples against the death penalty,” notes author Burton H. Wolfe in his 1973 book, Pileup on Death Row.  “Although the procedure was normal, somehow it struck Solovy as being ‘impermissible’ and ‘unconstitutional.’”  After the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1968 ruling in the case, an estimated 350 people on Death Row across the country were re-sentenced.  Mr. Witherspoon won his freedom in 1978 from a parole board, and he went on to become a respected advocate for reform of the criminal justice system before his death in 1990.

Mr. Solovy also has argued before the Illinois Supreme Court on behalf of indigent individuals in numerous criminal cases, including Berman v. Illinois (regarding whether a person who is too poor to hire a court reporter can obtain a new trial after being convicted) and People v. Boclair (involving issues of attorney client privilege and work product).

He also acted as counsel for the adoptive parents in In re Baby Richard, 649 N.E.2d 324 (Ill.1995), the highly controversial case ultimately decided by a divided Illinois Supreme Court and involving a child returned to his birth parents after an extended custody fight.

Public Service

In addition to his highly successful work in court, Mr. Solovy is well-known in the legal community for his unwavering commitment to public service.  He successfully countered a courtroom challenge to remove Mayor Harold Washington from office based upon the failure to file an ethics statement, and he was the lead attorney for the City of Chicago in defending challenges to its aldermanic map.

Mr. Solovy is also an enduring leader in the movement for court reform in Chicago and Illinois.  In 1984, he was appointed by Harry J. Comerford, then-Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, to head the commission that investigated ways to protect against another Greylord judicial corruption scandal.  In 1992, he was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court as Chairman of the Special Commission on the Administration of Justice to study the justice system in the State of Illinois.  In 1993, the Commission issued two comprehensive reports to the Illinois Supreme Court as to how the justice system in Illinois could be improved. 

In 2007, Mr. Solovy was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court as Chair of the Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Commission, which aims to increase public awareness of the Illinois judiciary’s contributions to the state’s extensive legal heritage. During his four year term, Mr. Solovy will lead the Commission on assisting and advising the Court in regard to the acquisition, collection, documentation, preservation, cataloging, and related matters with respect to historic aspects of buildings, objects, artifacts, documents and information relating to the Illinois judiciary.  Mr. Solovy also serves as a Member of the Board of Trustees for the United States Supreme Court Historical Society.

Having served on numerous boards, commissions and task forces, Mr. Solovy is currently President and a Member of the Board of Directors of the Ruth Page Foundation; a Member of the Board of Directors for the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace of The Hebrew University; a Member of the American Friends of The Hebrew University Board of Regents; and a Member of the Board of Directors for the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs.
 
Mr. Solovy is a former Member of the Board of Directors for the National Equal Justice Library; a former Member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Disability and Elder Law; the former Chairman of the Advisory Board of the International Human Rights Law Institute (1999-2006); and a former Member of the Illinois Attorney General’s Ethics Commission (1999-2002).  In addition, Mr. Solovy is a former Member of the Illinois Death Penalty Education Project, an independent blue-ribbon group organized to study the state’s capital punishment system.  

Other past affiliations include the following: Member, Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Jury Instructions in Criminal Cases, 1961-68, 1975-77; Chairman, Chicago Bar Association Defense of Indigent Prisoners Committee, 1963-64; Chairman, Chicago Bar Association Special Committee Studying the Adequacy of Legal Representation Afforded Indigent Defendants, 1968-71; Co-Chairman, Chicago Bar Association Commission to Study Criminal Justice System in Cook County, 1971-75; Chairman, Chicago Bar Association Continuing Commission on Administration of Criminal Justice in Cook County, 1975-76; Chairman, Discovery Committee of American Bar Association Litigation Section, 1982-85; Chairman, American Bar Association Litigation Section Trial Practice Committee, 1985-88; Co-Chairman, American Bar Association Litigation Section Federal Procedure Committee, 1988-89; Member, Special Review Committee on the Federal Civil Rules, 1989-92; Member, Task Force on Lawyers’ Ancillary Business Activities, 1989-91; Liaison to the ABA Post-conviction Death Penalty Representation Project, 1990-92; Chairman, Special Commission on the Administration of Justice in Cook County, 1984-91; Chairman, Criminal Justice Project of Cook County, 1987-91; Member, Judicial Advisory Council of Cook County, Illinois, 1975-77 and 1982-89 & Chairman, 1989-91; Chairman, Cook County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, 1989-91; Member, Third Circuit Rule 11 Task Force, 1987-88; and a Member of the American Judicature Society’s Center for Judicial Independence.

Awards

Public recognition of  Mr. Solovy’s career-long commitment to pro bono representation culminated when he was chosen as a recipient of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation’s prestigious 2005 John Minor Wisdom Public Service and Professionalism Award for his lifelong commitment and contributions to the quality of justice in the community.  He was recognized as Chicago Lawyer’s 2007 Person of the Year for his “unbeatable passion, strong leadership, and unending commitment to pro bono work,” and is also the recipient of The American Lawyer magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award (2007), the Cook County Public Guardian's Advocate of the Year Pro Bono Award (2007), the Decalogue Society of Lawyers Lifetime Achievement Award (2004), the American Inns of Court Professionalism Award (Outstanding Service to Clients and Community) (2004), and the Illinois Bar Foundation’s Distinguished Award for Excellence (2003).  In 2002, Mr. Solovy was the first lawyer outside of New York presented with the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Judge Simon H. Rifkind Award.  In 2001, he was chosen as the recipient of the Laureate Award bestowed by the Illinois State Bar Association’s Academy of Illinois Lawyers for “demonstrated commitment to the highest principles of the legal profession through a pervasive record of service to the law, the profession, and the public."  In 2010, Chicago Lawyer named Mr. Solovy one of the ten attorneys who “raised the bar over the last decade,” based on a survey of Illinois lawyers.

Other significant awards he has received include the Chicago Bar Association’s First Annual United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens Award (2000), the American Jewish Committee Judge Learned Hand Human Relations Award (1988), the Jewish National Fund Tree of Life Award (1997), the Anti-Defamation League Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Civil Rights Award (1996), the Cook County Court Watchers, Inc. Award (1995), the Seventh Circuit Bar Association Pro Bono Award (1993), the Cook County Board of Commissioners Commendation (1991), the Chicago Council of Lawyers Commendation awarded to the Special Commission on the Administration of Justice (“The Solovy Commission”) (1988), the American Judicature Society Herbert Harley Award (1986), and the Decalogue Society of Lawyers Award (1971).

Education, Authorship, Bar Membership

Mr. Solovy is a graduate of the University of Michigan (B.A. with high honors and distinction, 1952) and Harvard Law School (L.L.B., cum laude, 1955).  At Michigan, he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Pi Sigma Alpha and Phi Eta Sigma.  At Harvard Law School, he served as a member of the Board of Editors for the Harvard Law Review (1953-1955).  After graduation, Mr. Solovy served as a member of the Harvard Overseers’ Committee to Visit Harvard Law School (1987-1991), and as a member of the Overseers’ Committee on University Resources (1993-1998).

Mr. Solovy is an accomplished author, having co-authored a regular column on litigation practice and procedure for The National Law Journal.  He co-authored a chapter entitled “Law Department Management” in a new treatise, Successful Partnering Between Inside and Outside Counsel, published by the American Corporate Counsel Association and West Group.

Mr. Solovy is a named author in Moore’s Federal Practice, having written Chapter 11 (Sanctions) and Chapter 23 (Class Actions), and serves as a member of that publication’s editorial board.  He is also a member of the Board of Editors for Matthew Bender’s Federal Litigation Guide Reporter; a former editor of BNA’s RICO Reporter; and a former member of the editorial board of The Practical Litigator.  In addition, Mr. Solovy has been a featured lecturer on various subjects, including Complex Litigation, Class Actions, Civil Procedure, Securities Law, Attorneys’ Fees, Proxy Fights and Takeover Litigation.

Mr. Solovy is admitted to practice in numerous federal and state jurisdictions.  He is also a Member of the American Law Institute and is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.