JOHN B. SIMON, Partner Professional Activities Chicago Office Office: (312) 923-2921 Fax: (312) 840-7321 Email: jsimon@jenner.com  Add to Outlook Contacts

John B. Simon is a partner in the Firm’s Litigation Department.  He is a member of the Firm’s Complex Commercial Litigation and International Arbitration Practices.  Mr. Simon is AV Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell’s highest recognition for ethical standards and legal ability.

Using creative strategies and practical problem solving skills, Mr. Simon maximizes outcomes for clients involved in high-stakes litigation and alternative dispute resolution matters.  His unique abilities have been repeatedly recognized by his peers in the prestigious Best Lawyers in America, Illinois Super Lawyers and Leading Lawyers, which lists him in the areas of commercial litigation, civil appeals and governmental, regulatory and administrative law.  He has also been recognized for actively serving and leading many professional, charitable and civic organizations.

Mr. Simon began his legal career as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, where he handled a wide variety of civil and criminal trials and appeals, as well as administrative matters.  He was appointed Chief of the office’s Civil Division at age 29, the youngest person ever to serve as a division supervisor.  Prior to joining Jenner & Block in 1986, Mr. Simon engaged in private practice, augmenting his skills in corporate and transactional matters.

Litigation Experience

Mr. Simon’s extensive litigation experience includes leading teams of attorneys in every phase of trial work covering numerous substantive legal areas, including contract, securities, antitrust, trade regulation, health care, employment, environmental, constitutional, tax, insurance, construction, class action, governmental and real estate matters. 

Mr. Simon emphasizes early case assessment and adoption of strategic approaches to litigation to achieve favorable outcomes that align with clients’ business interests.  He is also often called upon to represent clients in later stages of trial preparation to favorably position problematic issues or reorient case strategies.

Mr. Simon’s litigation experience includes:

• representing a multi-national advertising agency in a False Claims Act investigation and achieving a favorable settlement of a related qui tam lawsuit concerning a near one billion dollar government contract;
  
  
• working with trial counsel and radically altering the case strategy on behalf of a software developer and broker dealer/clearing firm in a usurpation of corporate opportunity case, resulting in a finding of no liability;
  
  
• serving as co-lead defense counsel in successfully resolving a piping antitrust class action case, in which an opinion of the court gave “special thanks” to Mr. Simon for having a “keen sense of the proprieties involved;”
  
  
• developing, trying and arguing on appeal an innovative case that was the first to uphold the constitutionality of the civil provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations  Act (RICO) while enjoining an organized crime gambling operation;
  
  
• obtaining a settlement of a class action case favorable to an international restaurant chain by implementing a strategy that preserved the hiring practice at issue, the loss of which would have threatened the viability of the company’s highly successful marketing theme;
  
  
• representing an international car rental company in numerous matters, including successfully overcoming a challenge at trial and on appeal to the collision damage waiver provision in the company’s rental agreements; 
  
  
• successfully trying cases relating to claims of  breach of restrictive covenants in employment agreements;
  
  
• obtaining injunctive relief and negotiating the reversal of a unilateral contract change by the Illinois Capital Development Board that would have resulted in an electrical contractor client losing millions of dollars on a state prison construction project; and
  
  
• representing the receiver of a looted trust fund in the disposition of multiple complex lawsuits and restoring the entirety of the trust fund by crafting an innovative transaction that sold the enterprise to a new owner.

Alternative Dispute Resolution Experience

A certified mediator, Mr. Simon is an adjunct professor and member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Dispute Resolution at the DePaul University College of Law, one of the country’s foremost accrediting ADR programs.

Mr. Simon is experienced both as an arbitrator and mediator and has also obtained successful outcomes on behalf of business clients in alternative dispute resolution proceedings, including obtaining significant recoveries in:

• an action on an indemnification claim arising out of a breach of a stock purchase agreement caused by improper underwriting by the seller of an insurance company;
  
  
• five consolidated appeals involving the bad faith refusal of insurers to provide defense coverage to a client in an underlying tort action; and 
  
  
• an action against a big four accounting firm and the executives of a company alleged to have fraudulently converted company assets.

Governmental and Regulatory Experience

Mr. Simon has extensive experience as a lobbyist and in handling federal, state and local government regulatory and administrative matters.  He has also served as counsel to the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, Illinois Racing Board, Illinois Farm Development Authority, Illinois State Board of Investment and the Illinois Departments of Insurance and Public Aid. 

In addition, Mr. Simon has served as special counsel to numerous governmental agencies and commissions, including the Illinois Governor’s Revenue Study Commission on Legalized Gambling, the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration and the Commission on the Review of the National Policy Toward Gambling. 

Mr. Simon’s representative engagements in this area include:

• crafting legislation and successfully lobbying passage of bills expanding the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority system and Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center;
  
  
• representing insurance regulators in Illinois and elsewhere in administrative, trial and appellate proceedings relating to the approval of insurance company acquisitions and the conservation, rehabilitation and liquidation of impaired insurance companies;
  
  
• representing insurance companies before state insurance regulators involving risk based capital, market conduct and triennial examinations, holding company issues, NAIC SVO valuations, corrective and cease and desist orders, and other reporting and compliance matters; and
  
  
• representing the Illinois State Medical Society and its insurance company affiliate in health law matters and providing strategic planning and advice regarding the implementation of   health care related initiatives and proposals before legislative and  public regulatory entities.

Transactional Experience

Mr. Simon’s transactional experience has included the formation of business entities, private placements, creation of business ventures, business contracts and employment agreements.  Among his representative transactional engagements are the:

• creation of a technology service company spin-off from an international pharmaceutical company;
  
  
• formation of a physicians group entity and handling of the transaction by which it entered into a joint venture with a hospital corporation for the delivery of specialized medical services;
  
  
• representation of insurers in the acquisition of other insurance companies; and
  
  
• serving as lead counsel for Chicago Milwaukee Railroad/Heartland Partners in the sale of its commuter rail lines to a regional transportation authority.

Awards

Mr. Simon has been recognized repeatedly for his professionalism as well as his commitment to the legal profession and the community.  In 2008, he was awarded the Chicago Bar Foundation’s coveted U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens Award, which honors attorneys who “exemplify the highest personal integrity and devotion to public service.”  Mr. Simon has also received the Judge Learned Hand Human Relations Award, the DePaul University College of Law Award for Outstanding Service to the Legal Profession, the American ORT Jurisprudence Award and was selected as a participant in the U.S. Department of Justice Honors Program.  His biography is included in Marquis’ Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Law.

Pro Bono Service

Mr. Simon devotes substantial efforts to pro bono service and has continuously rendered assistance to persons lacking the resources to help themselves that have included:

• defending at trial and on appeal a not-for-profit social service agency in wrongful adoption cases;
  
  
• prosecuting a class action case filed in the U.S. District Court seeking to improve hygiene, clothing, educational, recreational and housing standards for state prison inmates; and
  
  
• leading the effort that raised the annual attorney registration fee to increase grants to legal assistance organizations serving the disadvantaged.

Bar and Civic Leadership

Mr. Simon’s civic, bar association and charitable activities have included his service as President of the Chicago Bar Association, Member of the Illinois Supreme Court Planning and Oversight Committee for a Judicial Performance Evaluation Program, Director of The Chicago World’s Fair 1992 Authority, Chair of the DePaul University Board of Trustees, Commissioner of the Illinois Racing Board, President of the Lawyer’s Trust Fund of Illinois, Board member of the Just the Beginning Foundation and Community Film Workshop, Chair of the Village of Glencoe Zoning Board, and an elected Member of the Glencoe School Board Nominating Committee. 

Mr. Simon currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee, a Trustee of DePaul University and as Chancellor of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois.  He is a member of the American Bar Association, Federal Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association, Women’s Bar Association, Chicago Bar Association and Decalogue Society of Lawyers.

Education

Mr. Simon received his B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1964.  He earned his J.D. degree in 1967 from the DePaul University College of Law, where he was on the DePaul Law Review, received two Bancroft Whitney American Jurisprudence Awards and was a finalist in intramural moot court competition.