News
The dicamba herbicide duels: When law, politics, and science collide
Wait, dicamba? What’s that? Well, dicamba is actually a chemical compound, a synthetic version of a plant hormone, auxin, and a benzoic acid herbicide. It’s been known to farmers for decades and over the years has been marketed…
Shareholder Daniel R. Thies Joins the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar
The Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is the nationally recognized accrediting body for law schools in the United States. Shareholder Daniel R. Thies recently joined the 21-member Council as one of its youngest members ever. The...
Senior Shareholder Richard L. Thies Recognized as a “Founder” of Mutual Insurance Company
W & T Shareholder, Richard L. Thies (second from the left in the above picture), was designated as one of three founders of the ISBA Mutual. The company recently celebrated its 30th Anniversary and has grown to roughly 7,700 insured lawyers and $80 million in...
Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Re-Elects John Thies as its President
At its June 29, 2018 board meeting, shareholder John Thies was elected to a second two-year term as president of Land of Lincoln Legal Aid. “Land of Lincoln” provides free legal service to low income individuals and seniors throughout the southern 65 counties in...
The promises and perils of asserting the mediation privilege
Mediation appears to offer a number of benefits including the ability of participants to disclose confidential information during mediation with the assurance that such information will be protected by the mediation privilege. The mediation privilege purports to offer strong protection for communications that occur during the course of mediation. Attorneys, nonetheless, must be careful to avoid…
A ruse by any other name: Normalizing trademark infringement by domain name sabotage
Recently, a prominent long-established property tax law firm, O’Keefe Lyons & Hynes, LLC, of Chicago filed a suit for trademark infringement in Chicago federal court against O’Keefe Law Firm, Ltd. of LaGrange. Reprising its illustrious history, the elder firm argues in its complaint that “the term ‘O’Keefe’ is the most distinctive…
Recent developments in the Seventh Circuit’s class action jurisprudence: Not as pro-plaintiff as they first appear
The Seventh Circuit has traditionally built a reputation as one of the more pro-defendant jurisdictions for defendants in class action lawsuits. But in the past two years the Seventh Circuit has issued a spate of decisions appearing to favor…
Does Equity Allow an ERISA Plan to Seek Reimbursement from a Participant’s General Assets?
Does a lawsuit by an ERISA fiduciary against a participant to recover an alleged overpayment by the plan seek “equitable relief” within the meaning of ERISA Section 502(a)(3), 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(3), if the fiduciary has not identified a particular fund that is in the participant’s possession and control at the time the fiduciary asserts its claim?
Deposition objections: Are you saying too much? Or too little?
Courts and the practicing bar have made great strides in recent years in policing and punishing discovery abuses. Rather than using the discovery process as an opportunity to obstruct the other side and coerce a favorable outcome by driving up litigation costs, most counsel now approach discovery…