JEFFREY D. COLMAN, Partner Publications · Professional Activities Chicago Office Office: (312) 923-2940 Fax: (312) 840-7340 Email: jcolman@jenner.com  Add to Outlook Contacts

Jeffrey D. Colman is a partner in the Firm's Litigation Department.  He is a Co-Chair of the Professional Responsibility Practice and a member of the Environmental Litigation and Class Action Practices.  Mr. Colman’s 35-year career has focused on complex civil and criminal litigation at both the trial and appellate levels.  Mr. Colman is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.   

Mr. Colman has served as lead counsel for large and small corporations, partnerships and individuals in a wide array of civil litigation at the trial court level.  He has extensive experience in a variety of litigation including attorney malpractice, class actions, products liability, environmental, securities fraud, antitrust, civil rights and general commercial litigation.

Mr. Colman has extensive experience representing large and small law firms and individual attorneys in professional liability cases at the trial and appellate level, and he has represented a number of attorneys in sanctions proceedings and in disciplinary actions.  In recent years, Mr. Colman has represented more than 20 large law firms from around the country in litigation involving allegations of malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty and fraud.  The malpractice representations have focused on a wide variety of substantive areas including patent prosecutions, NLRB representations, real estate, corporate transactions, environmental work, tax advice and alleged errors in litigation. 

Mr. Colman has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in class action litigation.  Recently, he served as lead counsel for a major utility in a number of class action cases alleging environmental contamination.  He also recently represented a major food manufacturer in nationwide class action litigation involving allegedly contaminated meat products.  He also has represented Illinois state officials in class action employment litigation and the trustees of a major pension fund in class action litigation brought by beneficiaries of the fund.  On the plaintiffs’ side, Mr. Colman has represented a class of flight attendants in litigation challenging a major airline’s “no-marriage” rule and a class of African American home purchasers in class action housing discrimination litigation.

Mr. Colman also has extensive experience in the defense of civil rights litigation.  He served for more than 20 years as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the State of Illinois representing state officials in First Amendment cases, voting rights cases, employment discrimination cases and reverse race discrimination litigation.  Mr. Colman also has represented municipal governmental entities and he has served as counsel for Cook County, the City of Chicago, the Chicago Board of Education, and the Chicago Board of Elections.

In the white collar criminal area, Mr. Colman has represented large and small corporations, partnerships and individuals in grand jury investigations, internal corporate investigations and criminal proceedings at both the trial and appellate court levels.  In recent years, Mr. Colman has conducted several internal investigations for large corporations, and has represented a corporate executive charged with interstate transportation of stolen trade secrets, the chief executive officer of a corporation which allegedly violated the Anti Embargo Act, several attorneys who allegedly had improper relationships with judges, an options trader and investment advisor who allegedly engaged in securities fraud and a Fortune 100 company involved in a criminal antitrust investigation.

Mr. Colman has participated in more than 60 civil and criminal appeals involving a wide variety of issues in courts across the country, including the United States Supreme Court, and the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh and Federal Circuits.  His recent work includes successful appeals for major law firms involved in malpractice and securities fraud litigation, the successful representation of public officials in civil rights appeals and the successful representation of the Governor of the State of Illinois in litigation challenging a state voting procedure.

Like many of the Firm’s attorneys, Mr. Colman has been deeply involved in the representation of the indigent, in community affairs and in efforts to improve the quality of the administration of justice.  Mr. Colman currently serves on a team of Jenner & Block lawyers representing prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.  Mr. Colman has litigated death penalty cases in Georgia and Illinois, he has represented minorities in voting rights litigation and housing discrimination cases, and he has represented a significant number of indigent defendants in criminal trials and pro bono appeals.  Mr. Colman recently served as President of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Bar Foundation and President of the Board of Directors of the Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago.  In the past, Mr. Colman has served as a member of the board of directors of numerous organizations, including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the John Howard Association, and the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities.

Mr. Colman has received numerous awards for his pro bono and public service activities.  In 2009, Mr. Colman received an Award for Excellence in Pro Bono Service from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.  He also recently received the 2008 Leadership Award from the John Howard Association of Illinois, a prison reform group, for his defense of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; the 2008 Chicago Inn of Court Donald Hubert Public Service Award for pro bono and community service work; and a commendation from Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and the Chicago City Council for his work on behalf of an Iraqi woman who wanted to participate in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.  In past years, Mr. Colman was honored by the National Legal Aid and Defenders Association with its national Arthur von Briesen Award for outstanding volunteer contributions to the provision of legal assistance for the poor, and by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Illinois Public Defenders Association, the Illinois Capital Resource Center, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Mr. Colman has served the Illinois Supreme Court as a member and secretary-treasurer of its Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions in Criminal Cases, and he served the Illinois Supreme Court as chairman of its Committee on Post-Conviction Review of Death Sentences.  He also served as chairman of Senator Carol Moseley-Braun’s Committee to Review the Qualifications of Nominees to the United States Supreme Court.

Mr. Colman graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1970 and from Stanford University Law School in 1973.  He taught in the Clinical Legal Education Program at Stanford in 1973-1974 and taught criminal trial practice at Northwestern University School of Law from 1980 to 1984.

Mr. Colman is AV Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell's highest peer recognition for ethical standards and legal ability. In 2008 and 2009, Chambers USA named Mr. Colman one of the country’s leading lawyers in Litigation.