Field Museum
The Field Museum, whose work connects all of us to the natural world and the human story.
Pilsen Food Pantry
The Pilsen Food Pantry aims to improve health and social outcomes through the distribution of fresh, culturally-appropriate food, clothing, housewares, and community events. The pantry is an extension of the Figueroa Wu Family Foundation’s mission to bring anti-poverty services into areas of unmet needs. It is an immigrant-serving organization and readily welcomes its new migrant neighbors by providing safety, shelter, food, clothing, and healthcare.
Boston University School of Law
Boston University School of Law is one of the nation’s top law schools with a history of excellence dating back to 1872. Its faculty are consistently recognized for exceptional teaching, preeminent scholarship, and transformative mentorship. With more than 25,000 alumni living in all 50 states and more than 100 countries around the world, its graduates have access to a vast global network that contributes to their professional success. The BU Law complex, comprised of the state-of-the-art Sumner M. Redstone Building and adjoining 17-story tower, is located in the heart of Boston overlooking the Charles River.
Chicago Run
Providing children and youth from pre-k through high school with fun and engaging physical activity programs regardless of age neighborhood or athletic ability level. Chicago Run serves over 18,000 children and youth with high-quality enriching physical fitness programs, with the goal of improving the physical fitness and social/emotional well-being of all participants by following a Sports Based Youth Development model and using Trauma Sensitive coaches.
When the Lights Went Out
When the Lights Went Out
Our client, a large demolition contractor, was hired to demolish a smokestack at a coal-fired power plant. Unfortunately, the smokestack fell the wrong way, destroying a building and cutting off power for a large municipality. But its insurance companies denied the claim for the substantial damages arising from the accident. In a world in which accidents happen even to the best in business, and our client found itself abandoned by its insurers, we were there to fight for our client, and it was able to pay for the damage out of its insurers’ checkbooks. First, we negotiated a resolution of the claim with the power company. Then, we aggressively fought our client’s insurers in litigation, forcing them to pay the claim. Through litigation, we were able to recover from the insurers 100% of the money required to settle the dispute with the power company, and our client also recovered the fees it paid us to force the insurers to pay the claim.
When the Servers Crashed
When the Servers Crashed
Our client, a large construction company, was nearing the completion of a hospital that it was building in Canada when disaster struck. The server on which it stored all of the documents required to complete the project was wiped out, requiring it to incur millions of dollars in extra expenses. We fought aggressively; so aggressively that the insurer’s initial counsel withdrew on the eve of the arbitration. And our client recovered its losses on the project caused by the server failure, and it also recovered most of the legal fees it incurred to enforce its rights.
BIPA Class Actions
BIPA Class Actions
When a large automotive parts manufacturer found itself the target of a class-action lawsuit seeking many millions of dollars for allegedly violating the Illinois Biometric Information Protection Act (BIPA), its insurers denied its claims. Every scan is a separate occurrence, and our client found itself facing claims for each time scan for each of its thousands of employees over a five-year period. But we secured insurance coverage through litigation, pushing the envelope in this emerging area of insurance coverage litigation, and won our client protection against existential exposure.
To Catch a Thief
To Catch a Thief
Our client, a not-for-profit, found itself the victim of an elaborate scheme through which its founder stole more than a million dollars from the organization’s coffers. We helped our client navigate the choppy waters of the investigations that ensued and helped it recover the full limits of its coverage, including recovery for the costs it incurred in the investigation of the loss. While this recovery was not the largest that Goodman Law Group | Chicago secured for a client, it ranks as among the best because it returned funds to support a community that was in dire need.
Illinois Insurance Math: When We Made 1 + 1 Equal Won
When the Lights Went Out
Illinois Insurance Math: When We Made 1 + 1 Equal Won
A client came to us on the eve of trial with a problem: its insurer told it following an unsuccessful mediation that one of the two claims against it was not covered. The lawsuit sought to hold our client responsible for failing to prevent two fights from happening on its property and alleged that our client was responsible for the severe injuries resulting from the two fights. One of the fights occurred on the last day covered by the insurance policy and the second fight occurred on the next day – a day without insurance coverage. Our client asked us to help them understand how to allocate the damages between the two fights based on what it had been told by the insurance company: that the injuries from the second fight were not insured. But applying our knowledge of insurance coverage law, we pushed back on the insurance company arguing that since both fights were alleged to have arisen from the same conditions that our client was alleged to have created, both fights were in reality just one occurrence: an occurrence fully covered by our client’s insurance policy. The insurer backed down and accepted responsibility for all of the injuries our client was alleged to have caused. In short, we made 1 + 1 equal WON, getting the insurer to cover both fights.
Scholastic
This publisher and distributor participates in a campaign that strives to raise money to ensure children from low-income households in a Chicago public school have access to books. The campaign, titled “A Book at Home for Every Child,” supports the efforts of Nancy Wright, a teacher at Joyce Kilmer Elementary School, who started a book vending machine in her school of 700 students pre-K through grade 8, primarily coming from underprivileged backgrounds. Each child is given tokens by their teacher, which they use to pick out and keep their own new books. The purpose of this project is to inspire a love of reading and provide students with resources they may not have access to at home. GLG’s donation will help Ms. Wright with the ongoing task of maintaining and stocking the vending machine with a variety of new, desirable, and interesting books.
