Recognized as one of the most influential trial and arbitration lawyers in the United States, Terri Mascherin gets results.
As Co-Chair of the firm's Litigation Department and Education Practice, Terri secures decisive wins for businesses, law firms, and higher education institutions confronting high-stakes disputes in court and in arbitration. Advising clients across the financial, technology, media, energy, education, and legal industries, she combines courtroom command with strategic judgment. Terri has tried more than three dozen cases and arbitrations across the country. A Fellow and Regent of the American College of Trial Lawyers, she is Band 1-ranked in Chambers USA where clients have described Terri as “exceptionally smart and very level-headed.”
Businesses facing complex disputes involving corporate transactions, partnerships, joint ventures, and commercial contracts are drawn to Terri's proven record as a fierce advocate. Her judgment in picking the right battles proves just as valuable to clients as her skills at resolving them.
Recently, Terri led a Jenner team that obtained what is believed to be the largest civil jury verdict in Michigan history. Representing the co-owners of one of the largest hydroelectric pump storage plants in the world, Terri and her colleagues won a verdict finding that Toshiba America Energy Systems breached its warranties and other contractual duties in overhauling the plant. The jury awarded her clients $394 million in damages and rejected Toshiba's affirmative defenses and counterclaim in a case that encompassed complex legal issues, technical engineering analysis, and electricity markets and regulation. The team’s work in the case earned recognition in The American Lawyer’s Litigator of the Week.
In a complex hedge fund dispute on behalf of the Redeemer Committee of the Highland Crusader Funds, Terri headed a team that won a $190 million arbitration award against the Fund manager, then pursued enforcement of that award in Delaware Chancery Court, in the Supreme Court of Bermuda, in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, and ultimately in bankruptcy court when the manager filed for bankruptcy in an effort to avoid judgment. Terri was also instrumental in achieving an international arbitration award valued at several billion dollars for client Fox affiliate FSG Services LLC in its dispute with Flutter Entertainment, the parent company of sports betting company, FanDuel.
Terri has served the legal profession as a past president of the Chicago Bar Association and maintains an active pro bono practice focused on criminal defense and securing justice for the wrongfully accused and convicted. She played a pivotal role in defending former Illinois Governor George Ryan's clemency orders commuting the sentences of 167 prisoners on death row.
Terri brings to every matter what clients need most: the skill to win and the judgment to take the right path to victory.
Litigation is not a blunt instrument. It is a tool to be wielded strategically to achieve the goals of the business, enterprise, or individual.
Credentials
Service / Recognition
Overview
Recognized as one of the most influential trial and arbitration lawyers in the United States, Terri Mascherin gets results.
As Co-Chair of the firm's Litigation Department and Education Practice, Terri secures decisive wins for businesses, law firms, and higher education institutions confronting high-stakes disputes in court and in arbitration. Advising clients across the financial, technology, media, energy, education, and legal industries, she combines courtroom command with strategic judgment. Terri has tried more than three dozen cases and arbitrations across the country. A Fellow and Regent of the American College of Trial Lawyers, she is Band 1-ranked in Chambers USA where clients have described Terri as “exceptionally smart and very level-headed.”
Businesses facing complex disputes involving corporate transactions, partnerships, joint ventures, and commercial contracts are drawn to Terri's proven record as a fierce advocate. Her judgment in picking the right battles proves just as valuable to clients as her skills at resolving them.
Recently, Terri led a Jenner team that obtained what is believed to be the largest civil jury verdict in Michigan history. Representing the co-owners of one of the largest hydroelectric pump storage plants in the world, Terri and her colleagues won a verdict finding that Toshiba America Energy Systems breached its warranties and other contractual duties in overhauling the plant. The jury awarded her clients $394 million in damages and rejected Toshiba's affirmative defenses and counterclaim in a case that encompassed complex legal issues, technical engineering analysis, and electricity markets and regulation. The team’s work in the case earned recognition in The American Lawyer’s Litigator of the Week.
In a complex hedge fund dispute on behalf of the Redeemer Committee of the Highland Crusader Funds, Terri headed a team that won a $190 million arbitration award against the Fund manager, then pursued enforcement of that award in Delaware Chancery Court, in the Supreme Court of Bermuda, in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, and ultimately in bankruptcy court when the manager filed for bankruptcy in an effort to avoid judgment. Terri was also instrumental in achieving an international arbitration award valued at several billion dollars for client Fox affiliate FSG Services LLC in its dispute with Flutter Entertainment, the parent company of sports betting company, FanDuel.
Terri has served the legal profession as a past president of the Chicago Bar Association and maintains an active pro bono practice focused on criminal defense and securing justice for the wrongfully accused and convicted. She played a pivotal role in defending former Illinois Governor George Ryan's clemency orders commuting the sentences of 167 prisoners on death row.
Terri brings to every matter what clients need most: the skill to win and the judgment to take the right path to victory.
Litigation is not a blunt instrument. It is a tool to be wielded strategically to achieve the goals of the business, enterprise, or individual.
Areas of Focus
Credentials
Admissions
- Illinois, 1984
Education
- Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, JD, cum laude, Order of the Coif, 1984
- Duke University, BA, magna cum laude, President's Senior Leadership Award, Phi Eta Sigma, 1981
Court Admissions
- US Supreme Court, 1995
- US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, 2022
- US Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, 1999
- US Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, 1987
- US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, 1999
- US Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit, 2000
- US District Court, Northern District of California, 1991
- US District Court, Northern District of Colorado, 1999
- US District Court, District of Connecticut, 2023
- US District Court, Northern District of Illinois, 1984
- US District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Trial Bar), 1989
- US District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, 1998
- US District Court, Western District of Michigan, 1998
- US District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin, 1998
Service / Recognition
Awards
- Lawdragon Hall of Fame, 2026
- The American Lawyer, Litigator of the Week, Runner-Up, 2025
- Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Litigators, 2021-2026
- Lexology Index, Commercial Litigation, 2024
- The Best Lawyers in America, Commercial Litigation, 2006-2024, 2026
- Chambers USA, Telecom, Broadcast & Satellite, 2003-2005; Litigation: General Commercial (Illinois), 2016-2026
- Chicago Bar Association's Alliance for Women, Founders Award, 2024
- American College of Trial Lawyers Distinguished Pro Bono Fellow, 2021
- Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, Thomas P. Sullivan Justice Award, 2021
- Illinois Super Lawyers, Business Litigation, 2005-2024; Top 10 Illinois Super Lawyers, 2018-2020; Top 50 Women Illinois Super Lawyers, 2007-2020; Top 100 Illinois Super Lawyers, 2012, 2016-2020
- Legal 500, General Commercial Disputes, 2020
- Leading Lawyers Network, Top 100 Leading Women Lawyers in Illinois, 2010, 2012; Top 100 Leading Women Business Lawyers in Illinois, 2010, 2012; Commercial Litigation, 2004-2019; Federal Regulatory Law, 2004-2019; Telecommunications Law, 2004-2019
- Student Funded Public Interest Fellowships, Distinguished Alumni Award, 2018
- The National Law Journal, 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America, 2007; Litigation Trailblazer, 2018
- Chicago Bar Association and Chicago Bar Foundation, Justice John Paul Stevens Award, 2018
- Crain’s Chicago Business, 25 Most Influential Women Lawyers in Chicago, 2017
- Greater Chicago/Upper Midwest Regional Chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, Woman of Achievement, 2016
- Korean American Bar Association of Chicago, Distinguished Service Award, 2014
- Lawdragon Magazine, 500 Leading Lawyers in America, 2011-2014; 500 New Stars, New Worlds, 2006
- Northwestern University, Law School Volunteer Service Award, 2013; Alumni Service Award, 2009
- Law360, Top Female Trial Attorney, 2012
- First Defense Legal Aid, First Defender Award, 2010
- Jenner & Block, Jerold S. Solovy Award, 2010; Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Pro Bono Award, 2003
- Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Cunningham Carey Award, 2004
- National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Outstanding Legal Service Award, 2002
- Duke University, Charles A. Dukes Award for Volunteer Leadership, 1996
Community
- National Association of College and University Attorneys, Member, NACUA Committee on Strategic Planning, 2020-2022
- Northwestern University Pritzker Law School, Co-Chair, Bluhm Legal Clinic Advisory Board; Past Member, Dean Search Committee; Past Chair, Law Board; Past Vice Chair, Law Board; Member, Law Board; Past Co-Chair, Plan 2008 Strategic Planning Working Group; Keynote Speaker, Law School Commencement Ceremony, 2007; Past Chair, Law School Fund Board; Member, Center on Wrongful Convictions Advisory Board
- Northwestern University, Secretary/Treasurer and Executive Committee Member, Council of 100, 2017-2021
- Duke University, Leadership Council Member, Women's Impact Network, 2017-2021; Sanford School of Public Policy, Member, Board of Visitors
- University of Illinois College of Law, Member, Advisory Board, Kimball R. and Karen Gatsis Anderson Center for Advocacy and Professionalism
- The CLEAR Initiative (Criminal Law Edit, Alignment and Reform), Two-year appointment in non-partisan project to reform and clarify the Illinois' Criminal Code
- Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois, Member, Board of Directors, 2013-2018; Treasurer, Board of Directors, 2017; Vice Chair, Board of Directors, 2018
Service to the Bar
- American Bar Association, Death Penalty Representation Project; Steering Committee, Past Member, Past Chair
- American College of Trial Lawyers, Chair, Upstate Illinois Committee, 2019-2021; Vice Chair, Complex Commercial Litigation Committee, 2020-2022; Member, Access to Justice Committee; Member, Mentoring Task Force
- Chicago Bar Association, Founding Member, Business Divorce and Complex Ownership Disputes Committee, 2018; President, 2010-2011; First Vice President, 2009-2010; Second Vice President and Chair, Membership Committee, 2008-2009; Treasurer and Chair, Finance Committee, 2006-2008; Member, Executive Committee, 2006-2012; Member, Board of Managers, 2004-2005; Chair, Strategic Planning Committee, 2005-2006; Past Chair, Young Lawyers' Section Committee on Professional Responsibility; Past Member, Judicial Evaluation Committee
- Chicago Bar Foundation, Member, Board of Directors, 2009-2010, 2011-2012; Chair, Advisory Board, Justice Entrepreneurs Project, 2011-2021
- Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, Past Board Member
- Illinois State Bar Association
- Office of the Illinois Appellate Defender, Past Panel Member, Capital Litigation Division
- Seventh Circuit Bar Association, Member, American Jury Project Commission
Pro Bono
Terri has an active pro bono practice, which has included successfully challenging sentences of two men on Illinois' death row and defending challenges to the clemency orders issued by former Illinois Governor George Ryan.
Other representative pro bono cases include:
- Represented defendant in People v. Koh (Circuit Court of Cook County) and won a not-guilty verdict for client who had been charged with the murder of his son
- Represented prisoner Adam Gray and won exoneration for client who, as a juvenile, had been wrongfully convicted of a double murder and arson
- Represented defendant in People v. Rivera (2nd Dist. Ill. App.) and won exoneration for client who had been wrongfully convicted of murder
- Represented prisoner in Gaines v. Theiret (N.D. Ill., 7th Cir.) and obtained writ of habeas corpus vacating death sentence
- Represented prisoner in People v. Thompkins (Ill. Sup. Ct.), a successful post-conviction challenge to death sentence
- Represented ten prisoners in People ex rel. Madigan v. Snyder, et al., (Illinois Supreme Court), an original mandamus action challenging clemency orders granted to prisoners on death row by Illinois Governor George Ryan
- Prepared amicus brief on behalf of independent law enforcement instructors and consultants in Dassey v. Dittman, a juvenile false confession case featured in the Netflix docuseries Making a Murderer
- Prepared amicus brief on behalf of the American Bar Association in Rompilla v. Beard (U.S. Supreme Court), addressing the prevailing professional norms for effective defense of capital cases