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Conway, Michael M.
Foley & Lardner LLP
321 North Clark
Suite 2800
Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 312-832-4351
Fax: 312-832-4700
Contact Us
Websites associated with this firm:http://www.foley.comSummary
Current Employment Position(s)
Partner
Lawyer Overview
Michael M. Conway is a partner at Foley & Lardner LLP. He is the leader of the Chicago office's Litigation Department, leader of the firm's Media Law Group, and a member of the firm's General Commercial Litigation and Appellate Practices and Entertainment & Media Industry Team.
Mr. Conway is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and is listed in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2008-09) and for the tenth year, he was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America in the field of first amendment law.* He has been selected for inclusion in the Illinois Super Lawyers lists as one of the top attorneys in Illinois for his business litigation work (2005-09). Only five percent of the lawyers in the state are named by Super Lawyers.* For 35 years, he has focused his practice on media, commercial arbitrations, business disputes, corporate and federal tax litigation with a particular emphasis on emergency injunctive cases. More than 180 reported decisions in the federal and state court systems have involved civil cases in which he had primary litigation responsibility at the trial court or on appeal, including First Amendment, commercial, business tort, ERISA, RICO, airport environmental, and federal tax disputes:
- Currently, Mr. Conway is lead trial counsel in two federal tax "test cases" for the credit union industry challenging recent IRS determinations that the sale of debt protection and financial service products by credit unions are subject to unrelated business income tax (UBIT). In Community First Credit Union v. United States (E.D. Wis.), after a four-day, 15 witness trial, a unanimous federal court jury in Green Bay returned a special verdict on May 14, 2009 ruling in favor of Community First on all claims and rejecting the Government's UBIT position. In the second tax refund suit, Bellco Credit Union v. United States, pending in U.S. District Court in Denver, Colorado, the district court on November 12, 2009 granted partial summary judgment that revenues received by Bellco from the sale of financial services and investment products to its members are not subject to UBIT, either. The remaining issues in the case are set for trial in December, 2009.
- On May 11, 2009, Mr. Conway won a 7th Circuit ruling that a Canadian corporation is not subject to ERISA liability in the U.S. courts. GCIU Employees v. Goldfarb Corp. (7TH Cir. 2009).
- In March 2009, Mr. Conway assisted his partner, Michael Lockerby, in winning a landmark franchise law ruling in FMS, Inc. v. Volvo Construction Co., 557 F.3d 758 (7th Cir. 2009), reversing a jury verdict for plaintiff and holding that Volvo properly terminated plaintiff's Samsung dealership when Volvo bought Samsung and discontinued that line of equipment.
- In January 2009, Mr. Conway won a ruling from the Illinois Appellate Court reversing the circuit court's interpretation of the "fiduciary shield doctrine" and remanding for hearing regarding personal jurisdiction. Femal v. Square D. Company, 338 Ill.App.3d 134 (1st Dist. 2009).
Mr. Conway has been principal trial attorney in a wide variety of civil matters. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment on behalf of The New York Times, New York Daily News and Boston Globe which Mr. Conway represented in a $125 million defamation lawsuit brought by Global Relief Foundation, an Islamic charity. The court of appeals ruled that the newspapers' articles reporting on governmental investigations of Global ties to terrorists were substantially true. Global Relief Foundation, Inc. v. The New York Times, et al., 390 F.3d 973 (7th Cir. 2004).
He has won libel cases for the Chicago Tribune, ABC, Kankakee Journal, Muhammad Ali, news magazines and other news organizations. In 2004, he obtained the dismissal of a suit based upon an Illinois newspaper's publication of the names on a state police list of sex offenders on the basis that an Illinois statute conferred absolute immunity against claims based upon the republication of such lists. The two appellate opinions in Desnick Eye Center v. ABC both argued on appeal by Mr. Conway provide important protections for news organizations from liability for claims related both to news gathering and news content. Desnick Eye Services v. ABC, 233 F.3d 514 (7th Cir. 2000) and 44 F.3d 1345 (7th Cir. 2005).
In his ERISA practice, he successfully defended a money manager against a $10 million ERISA claim brought by a pension fund. The federal district judge granted a defense verdict. Wsol v. FMA (N.D. Ill. 2000). This verdict was affirmed by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in an appeal argued by Mr. Conway, 266 F.3d 654 (7th Cir. 2001).
Mr. Conway was also lead trial attorney in 2005, successfully representing an LLC in a commercial arbitration relating to the dismissal of a member for cause. He currently is representing the shareholder representative in a series of post-merger disputes in Delaware Chancery Court and in arbitration. Mr. Conway has also represented a public company in a multimillion-dollar arbitration before a retired federal district judge. That claim was brought by the former chairman of the board of a NYSE-listed company against the client for breach of contract and related claims. The arbitrator awarded the plaintiff nothing.
Mr. Conway has successfully represented insurance companies, software companies and other employers in injunction lawsuits for breach of fiduciary duty and trade secret misappropriation.
In 2004, he successfully represented Wirtz Corporation d/b/a Judge & Dolph Ltd. in the Illinois Supreme Court, having a consumer class-action dismissed which had sought to force J&D to pay its state liquor tax under protest. Wexler v. Wirtz, 211 Ill.2d 18 (2004).
In his representation of airport proprietors, Mr. Conway has successfully represented airports in Chicago, Denver, Albuquerque and Cleveland in challenges to FAA approvals of airport developments. The most recent, on behalf of the City of Cleveland, upheld the FAA approval to a major airport redevelopment. City of Olmsted Falls v. FAA, 292 F.3d. 261(D.C. Cir. 2002).
Mr. Conway has tried bench or jury trials in the United States District Courts in Chicago, Detroit, Kalamazoo, and New Orleans, as well as the United States Tax Court, United States Claims Court, the circuit courts of Illinois and in arbitration proceedings. Mr. Conway has also tried, on behalf of both employers and employees, preliminary injunction cases asserting claims under non-competition agreements and the Illinois Trade Secret Act.
Mr. Conway has supervised Firm associates in pro bono federal appellate work.
Mr. Conway is a graduate of Yale Law School (J.D., 1973) and Northwestern University (B.S., 1968). He is a charter member of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism Hall of Achievement. Aside from his service as counsel to the United States House Judiciary Committee in the Impeachment Inquiry of President Richard M. Nixon in 1974, Mr. Conway was with Hopkins & Sutter until its merger with Foley & Lardner LLP on February 1, 2001. He was an elected delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, as well as in 1996.
Mr. Conway was admitted to the Bar in 1973. He is admitted to practice in Illinois and before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the First, Second, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Federal Circuits, the U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. Claims Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mr. Conway's publications include:
- Co-author, "A Win for the Team," The Deal (August 20, 2009).
- Co-author, "Third Party Subpoenas In Arbitration," BNA's Corporate Counsel Weekly (September 10, 2008).
- Author of a chapter in "The Attorney's Guide to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals," State Bar of Wisconsin CLE Books (2008, updated yearly).
- Co-author, "The Illinois Supreme Court and the Fair Report Privilege: A Free Press Victory," 94 Illinois Bar Journal 414 (August 2006).
- Co-author, "The Talking Point' Wars: Don't Neglect the Battle Over Public Opinion," Midwest In-House (January 23, 2006).
- Co-author, "Media Law Litigation, The Effective Use of Depositions," Juris Publishing (2004).
*The Illinois Supreme Court does not recognize certifications of specialties in the practice of law and no award or recognition is a requirement to practice law in Illinois.
Areas of Practice
- Appellate
- General Commercial Litigation
- Media Law
- Entertainment & Media
Qualifications
Bar Admissions
- Illinois, 1973
- U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois
- U.S. Court of Appeals 1st Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals 2nd Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals 5th Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals 6th Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals 7th Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals 8th Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals 10th Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals 11th Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals Federal Circuit
- U.S. Tax Court
- U.S. Court of Federal Claims
- U.S. Supreme Court
Professional Associations and Memberships
- Yale Law School Barristers Union, 1972 - 1973 (Chairman)
- Chicago Bar Association (Member)
- American Bar Association (Member, Litigation Section)
Honors and Awards
- Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers
- Listed in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business
- The Best Lawyers of America
- Named as one of the top 100 Illinois "Super Lawyers" by Law & Politics Media, Inc.
Past Employment Positions
- United States House of Representatives Committee on Judiciary Impeachment, Inquiry of Richard M. Nixon, Assistant Special Counsel, 1974
- Hopkins & Sutter
Education
- Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut,
1973
J.D., Doctor of Jurisprudence
Law Review: Yale Law Journal, Member, Board of Editors, 1971 - 1973 - Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois,
1968
B.S., Bachelor of Science
Honors: cum laude
Articles
Published Works
- Notes, Vol. 80, 82 Yale Law Journal
- Enforcement of Restrictive Covenants in Illinois Employment Contracts, 60 Chicago Bar Record 142, 1978
- Deposition Strategy, Law and Forms in Defamation Litigation, Published in 1981 as a Chapter in Matthew Bender Series
Office Information
Address
321 North Clark
Suite 2800
Chicago, IL 60654
Phones
312-832-4351
Faxes
312-832-4700