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Business and Commercial Litigation

Our Practice

Pedersen litigators bring wide-ranging experience to bear on the full spectrum of business and commercial disputes. With every engagement we seek the same result: to protect our clients' resources and right to conduct business.

Skilled negotiators, we are often able to obtain favorable remedies for our clients in arbitration and mediation proceedings. If there is no alternative to a trial, we proceed with vigorous, persuasive representation in state and federal trial and appellate courts. We also advocate successfully for our clients before local, state, and federal administrative agencies.

We are deeply experienced in helping closely-held business clients resolve a wide range of issues involving warranty claims, Uniform Commercial Code matters, tortious interference with business, the enforcement of restrictive covenants, insurance coverage, sales commission disputes, and contract disputes.

We have experience representing clients addressing fraud claims, including:

  • Conducting internal investigations for publicly traded companies and non-profit organizations
  • Prosecuting fraud actions against former corporate employees
  • Directors' and officers' liability matters
  • Breach of fiduciary duty
  • Common law fraud/consumer fraud defense

Partnering with clients, we devise statutory and regulatory compliance programs that will help them minimize the threat of potential litigation and safeguard their resources and their reputations.

Many of our clients are manufacturers who have called on us to handle product liability and personal claims. Working together, we mount strategic, effective defenses on their behalf, and assist clients in avoiding future claims.

Our Experience

  • Obtained a temporary restraining order and later a permanent injunction and money damages against a client's former employee who left to set up a competing business in northern Indiana where the case was also heard.
  • Successfully defended client against claims of unfair business practices, theft of trade secrets and patent infringement in the Central District of California.
  • Obtained a directed verdict in a jury trial involving multi-million dollar claims under commercial lease contracts.
  • Obtained a favorable settlement of post-closing claims alleging fraud and misrepresentation in connection with the sale of a business for sellers of an auto parts business.
  • Successfully appealed a claim by a public works contractor against a municipality.
  • Prevailed in a jurisdictional defense for foreign trucking company.
  • Obtained favorable settlements on more than 40 cases involving commodity straddles, in which the federal government challenged clients for back taxes.
  • Administers the product liability program for a large Midwestern manufacturing company which has resulted in the successful conclusion of more than 20 personal injury cases in which the client has paid neither judgment nor settlement costs.
  • Secured the assets and property of a $2 million business established through employee fraud and theft without filing a lawsuit.
  • Prosecuted RICO claims to obtain significant financial settlements for a local bottler of a nationally distributed soft drink and a national baby food company victimized by bribery schemes.
  • Successfully defended a major manufacturer of utility and industrial boilers against multi-million dollar breach of warranty claims filed in Massachusetts, Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana.
  • Developed and administered the entire product liability program for a U.S.-based manufacturer using a combination of umbrella insurance and aggressive trial methods. Since 1981, our client has not paid any product liability claims in settlement or after trial and has concluded more than 20 personal injury claims without paying anything in either judgments or settlements.
  • Successfully defended numerous quantum meruit, quit title, and breach of contract claims for a Chicago-based real estate entity.