Complex Business Litigation & Arbitration

Since 1983, Carmen Caruso has engaged in a wide variety of business cases on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants in Illinois and across the country. Throughout his career, the specific cases that Carmen has handled have tended to be diverse, complex, and challenging.  

Business litigation experience includes:

• Antitrust and related issues including tying claims, group boycotts, refusals to deal, retail price maintenance, price-fixing; and price discrimination claims under the Robinson-Patman Act.
• Business Torts including Deceptive Practice Act claims; claims for interference with contracts or business expectations.
• Business ownership issues:
  • Disputes among shareholders, partners, and members of limited liability companies in actions for breach of fiduciary duties, breach of contract, waste, oppression; and statutory claims for the inspection of records and dissolution.
  • “Sale of business” disputes including post-sale claims for breach of warranties and representations.
  • Enforcement of non-compete clauses after sales of businesses.
  • Impairment of goodwill.
• Civil rights claims:
  • Defense of property owners in fair housing litigation.
  • Representation of plaintiffs and defendants in claims for denial of contract opportunities in violation of 42 U.S.C. §1981.
• Computer software litigation including adequacy of performance and necessity of custom programming.
• Contract litigation:
  • Breaches of the Implied Covenant of Good Faith & Fair Dealing.
  • Commercial leases including “loss factor” issues.
  • Good cause for termination.
  • Insurance coverage disputes.
  • Materiality of alleged breaches.
  • Performance issues.
  • Supplier contract issues.
• Corporate litigation:
  • Shareholders derivative claims.
  • Officer & Director liability including issues of “reasonable business judgment.”
  • Parent/subsidiary issues including attempts to “pierce the corporate veil.”
• Damages claims:
  • Attempts to enforce contractual limitations on damages and recoveries.
  • Claims for consequential damages or lost profits.
  • Claims for liquidated damages.
  • Claims for punitive or exemplary damages or statutory damage awards. 
  • Presentation and refutation of expert testimony on damages.
• Defamation claims (libel and slander) involving private citizens and public officials.
• Employment Law (for employers and professional, managerial and executive employees):
  • Employment discrimination claims.
  • Executive employment contract litigation including questions of good cause for termination and conflicts of interest.
  • Fiduciary duty claims against employees (e.g. for competing against the employer)
  • Non-competition clause cases including questions of reasonableness, blue-penciling, protectable interests, and unclean hands.
  • Retaliatory discharge claims.
  • Severance Agreements, negotiated to avoid litigation.
  • Sexual harassment claims, including internal corporate investigations, and litigation of claims for hostile work environment as well as alleged quid pro quo conduct.
  • Trade secret misappropriation in the employment context (including claims for actual, threatened, and inevitable disclosure based on the sensitivity of an employee’s position).
  • Wage/Hour liability.
  • Whistleblower claims in the context of governmental contracting.
  • Wrongful discharge claims.
  • Related claims involving independent contractors, including the question of whether a contractors’ relationship was an employment relationship (or a franchise); claims for the recovery of commissions; and termination claims.
• Environmental litigation:
  • Private CERCLA actions.
  • Leaking underground storage tank (L.U.S.T.) cases.
• Fiduciary liability claims against trustees, executors, officers, directors, majority shareholders, attorneys.
• Fraud claims:
  • Common law fraud.
  • Securities fraud claims under federal Rule 10b-5 and related federal laws.
  • Non-dischargeability hearings under federal bankruptcy laws, where debts were based on alleged fraud or breach of fiduciary duty.
  • Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (R.I.C.O) claims.
  • State law statutory claims arising under the Illinois Consumer Fraud & Deceptive Business Practices Act or similar consumer protection (or “Little FTC Acts”) in other states.
  • Fraud claims based on omissions as well as affirmative misrepresentations.
• Governmental litigation:
  • Denial of business opportunities in public contracts or concessions at airports or other facilities.
  • Dormant Commerce Clause (and potential Due Process) challenges to local ordinances that may negatively impact an out-of-state business by unfairly discriminating in favor of local competitors.
  • Eminent Domain.
  • Zoning.
• Injunctions against contract terminations, infringements, or unlawful competition; and including emergency motion practice as well as evidentiary hearings and trials.
• International arbitration.
• Intellectual property disputes:
  • License agreement breaches and actions for accountings.
  • Copyright infringement claims.
  • Litigation counsel in patent infringement cases (co-counseling with patent counsel)
  • Trademark infringement claims including claims involving “knock off” products.
  • Trade secret misappropriation claims in the product distribution context (including claims for actual, threatened, and inevitable disclosure) and the threshold issue of whether the information in question rises to the level of deserving trade secret protection.
• Lenders’ liability claims.
• Procedural & Evidentiary issues:
  • Alternative Dispute Resolution (including arbitration, mock trials with advisory juries, and mediation)
  • Class actions.
  • Conflict of laws questions arising in multi-state disputes.
  • Expert witness opinions on questions related to liability (e.g. proof of industry standards, reasonability of conduct) or damages (including lost profits and “loss causation”); and Daubert challenges or other attempts to exclude expert testimony.   The presentation of quality expert testimony (and the refutation of bad expert opinions is a topic that Carmen has written extensively for lawyer CLE and other professional programs).
• Professional Liability:
  • Accountant liability based on the alleged failure to adhere to G.A.A.P.
  • Attorney liability claims including alleged negligence by lawyers based on both “contractual” and “tort” theories of duty and alleged breaches by lawyers of fiduciary duties owed to clients arising from alleged conflicts of interest and failing to disclose business interests; and other alleged ethical breaches..
  • Consultant liability for the alleged negligent misrepresentation of business advice.
  • Stockbrokers’ Liability for investment fraud, inappropriate risk, or churning etc.
• Real Estate Litigation:
  • Claims for specific performance or breach of purchase contracts.
  • Eminent Domain.
  • Leasing.
  • Valuation disputes.
• Trade Association issues including:
  • Antitrust issues.
  • Associational standing to sue in cases involving the interpretation of contracts.
• Unfair Competition cases