Todd C. Jacobs

Principal

Todd C. Jacobs

PHONE:
312.704.7705

E-MAIL:

EDUCATION
University of Iowa (B.A., 1986)

  • With highest distinction 
  • Phi Beta Kappa

University of Virginia School of Law (J.D., 1989)
  • Order of the Coif

PRACTICE AREAS
Business Litigation

BAR ADMISSIONS

  • State of Illinois
  • United States Supreme Court
  • United States Courts of Appeals for the Sixth, Seventh, Ninth and Eleventh Circuits
  • United States District Courts for the Northern District of Illinois (Trial Bar), District of Colorado, Middle District of Florida, Central District of Illinois, Eastern District of Michigan and Western District of Michigan
  • Admitted on a Pro Hac Vice basis to numerous other courts nationwide

  

Mr. Jacobs is the firm's Managing Principal and a member of its Executive Committee.

He litigates all manner and variety of complex business cases nationwide.  Included within his practice are class-action defense, complex contract actions, mass tort insurance coverage litigation and intellectual property matters.  Many of these cases involve allegations of fraud, bad faith and/or breach of fiduciary duty and claimed damages in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mr. Jacobs has represented numerous clients in such matters including:  Amazon.com, CNA, EMC, Fireman’s Fund, Fifth Third Bank, Groupon, IBM, RealNetworks, Skyhook Wireless and UBS Securities.

He has extensive trial experience having logged cumulatively in excess of eighteen months of trial time.  He also has broad appellate experience having briefed dozens of appeals and presented oral argument in the Sixth, Seventh and Eleventh Circuits as well as before state appellate courts in California, Illinois, Ohio and Washington state.

The vast majority of these matters were resolved by a favorable judgment or settlement following early motion victories.  Examples of this track record of success follow.

Representative Cases:

  • Lead counsel for Amazon.com, DIRECTV and RealNetworks in U.S. Supreme Court appeal concerning enforcement of arbitration provisions which ban class actions.  The Supreme Court recently upheld the legality of such provisions, an argument pioneered by Grippo & Elden more than a decade ago (see description of RealNetworks' privacy cases immediately below).
  • National coordinating counsel for streaming media pioneer RealNetworks in multidistrict privacy class-action litigation relating to RealPlayer and RealJukebox software.  See, e.g., Lieschke v. RealNetworks, Inc., 2000 WL 198424 (N.D. Ill. 2000); In re RealNetworks, Inc. Privacy Litigation, 2000 WL 631341 (N.D. Ill. 2000); RealNetworks, Inc. v. Superior Court in and for the County of Orange, 2001 WL 1527492 (Cal. App. 4th Dist. 2001) (sixteen nationwide putative class actions dismissed and claims ordered into individual, non-class arbitrations).
  • Lead counsel for IBM in disputes relating to implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and related software.  See, e.g., Irwin Seating Co. v. IBM, Slip Copy, 2009 WL 32711 (6th Cir. 2009) (affirming grant of summary judgment to IBM on contract claims and dismissal of fraud and negligent misrepresentation claims); 2007 WL 518866 (W.D. Mich. 2007) (affirming magistrate’s order striking plaintiff’s experts for violation of mediation confidentiality); Business Systems Engineering v. IBM, 547 F.3d 882 (7th Cir. 2008) (affirming grant of summary judgment to IBM on all claims); 249 F.R.D. 313 (awarding costs); M. Block & Sons, Inc. v. IBM, 2004 WL 1557631 (N.D. Ill. 2004) (dismissing fraud, breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation and warranty claims).
  • Lead counsel for RealNetworks in defense of consumer class-actions relating to the RealOne online-subscription service.  See, e.g., Koresko v. RealNetworks, Inc., 291 F. Supp. 2d 1157 (E.D. Cal. 2003) (dismissing case pursuant to End-User License Agreement forum selection clause).
  • Counsel for Amazon.com in defense of patent infringement claims relating to on-line personalization technologies.  Pinpoint, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., 347 F. Supp. 2d 579 (N.D. Ill. 2004) (Posner, J. sitting by designation) (case dismissed for lack of standing); 369 F. Supp. 2d 995 (N.D. Ill. 2005) (subsequently filed case dismissed with prejudice following favorable claim construction).
  • Trial counsel for CNA in New York state court class-action litigation (four-month bench trial) pertaining to alleged unaggregated "non-products" exposure for asbestos bodily injury claims.  Continental Casualty Co. v. Employers Ins. Co. of Wausau, et al., 871 N.Y.S.2d 48 (N.Y.A.D. 1 Dept. 2008) (Phase I) (no coverage for class claims).  Opponents and the trade press described this as a "landmark" decision in the insurance arena.  Mr. Jacobs is currently representing CNA in two California state court cases and one arbitration presenting similar issues.  See Employers Reinsurance Co. v. Superior Court, 161 Cal. App. 4th 906, 74 Cal. Rptr. 3d 733 (2d Dist. 2008) (establishing that course of performance evidence is relevant to interpretation of insurance contracts).
  • Trial counsel for Fireman’s Fund in bankruptcy court litigation seeking coverage for asbestos bodily injury and asbestos property damage claims.  See Celotex Corp. v. AIU Ins. Co., et al., 216 B.R. 867 and 222 B.R. 644 (Bankr. M.D. Fla. 1998) (defense judgment on late notice grounds); 251 B.R. 163 (awarding costs).  The judgment in Fireman's Fund's favor was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.  See In re Celotex Corp., 299 Fed. Appx. 850 (11th Cir. July 7, 2008).  In related contribution litigation, Mr. Jacobs successfully represented Fireman's Fund in its efforts to recover millions of dollars in defense costs from a non-defending primary insurer.  See Fireman's Fund Ins. Co. v. Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co., 2011 WL 1303148 (N.D. Ohio March 31, 2011) (denying Hartford's summary judgment motion).  The matter was recently concluded following the Ohio Supreme Court's denial of Hartford's request to certify issues of state law.
  • Mr. Jacobs is currently representing Groupon in a number of intellectual property matters involving patent, trademark and trade secret claims.
  • Over the past decade, Mr. Jacobs has successfully defended Fireman's Fund in more than a dozen employment cases alleging various forms of discrimination and/or breach of contract.  Each of these cases was dismissed at the pleading stage or on summary judgment.

Publications and Speeches:

  • Todd C. Jacobs, Emerging Insurance Issues (Perrin's New York Conference, 1/24/11).
  • Todd C. Jacobs, Practical Advice for Handling Civil Appeals (4/29/10).
  • Todd C. Jacobs, Motions Practice in State and Federal Court (7/12/07).
  • Todd C. Jacobs and Gary M. Miller, Enforcing Clickwrap Agreements, NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL (3/11/2002).

Recent Recognition:

May 2010 graduate of Harvard Law School's "Leadership in Law Firms" Executive Education program.

In September 2008, Mr. Jacobs was made an honorary North American member of the Commercial Bar Association (COMBAR), the leading organization of British barristers.

He was voted a "Business Litigation Super Lawyer" from 2005-2012 (current) in Chicago Magazine's Annual Guide to the Top Attorneys in Illinois and one of the "Top Lawyers in Illinois" and "Leading Lawyer - Class Action/Mass Tort Defense Law, Commercial Litigation and Insurance, Insurance Coverage & Reinsurance Law" by Leading Lawyers Network (Chicago Law Bulletin).