Chicago has long been recognized for its economic vibrance and strategic importance in the global marketplace.   As home to numerous international corporate headquarters and US-based operations, the city is an important business center.   Established in 1888, our Chicago office counts many of the region’s Fortune 500 and mid-sized companies among its longstanding clients. 

Our Chicago office was awarded nine Tier 1 practice rankings by the 2011-2012 U.S. News-Best Lawyers® in the following areas: Construction Law, Corporate Law, Criminal Defense: White Collar Governmental Investigations, Criminal Defense: White Collar Litigation, Entertainment Law – Motion Pictures & Television, Land Use & Zoning Law, Mutual Funds Law, Non-Profit/Charities Law, and Real Estate Law. Our real estate practice was characterized by Chambers USA’s 2010 edition as “great real estate lawyers who put client advocacy first.

K&L Gates’ Chicago office offers comprehensive legal counsel, including corporate, intellectual property, litigation, investment management, real estate, and regulatory services to a wide array of businesses in the financial services, manufacturing, life sciences, pharmaceutical, office products, food and entertainment industries.

Our Chicago IP practice has nearly 50 lawyers, including more than 35 USPTO-registered professionals, who dedicate their practice to patent, trademark, copyright, licensing, counseling and litigation. The firmwide IP group, of which the Chicago practice is the largest contingent, was recently named the second most referenced law firm for IP in Corporate Counsel magazine’s 2010 edition of Who Represents America’s Largest Companies. Our trademarks practice protects the global brands of some of the world’s most prominent businesses. In 2010, Trademark Insider named our Chicago practice as the Top Regional Trademark Firm in Chicago. IP Law & Business recognized our patent practice as “cutting edge.” The patent prosecution practice has many professionals with Ph.D.s or other advanced degrees in electrical, mechanical and chemical engineering, organic chemistry, materials science, microbiology and molecular biology. The IP litigation group includes a number of first chair litigators with substantial jury experience who represent clients around the U.S. trying cases in the state and federal courts and the U.S. International Trade Commission.

For more than 40 years, the Chicago office has represented mutual funds and other investment companies or their boards and investment advisers in the design, organization, distribution and marketing of numerous types of investment products and portfolios. Lawyers have organized many of the mutual funds that they represent and have been selected as successor counsel to many funds or their non-interested board members. The group supports independent directors in their exercise of fund governance responsibilities and the increasing challenges they face in that highly-regulated industry. When necessary, we can deploy industry-savvy lawyers, including those who have worked in regulatory agencies, to respond to a governmental or self-regulatory investigation, inquiry or enforcement proceeding. Our mutual funds group received Tier 1 rankings in both the 2010 and 2011-2012 editions of U.S. News-Best Lawyers®.

The corporate and securities lawyers of the Chicago office have a national practice advising public and private companies of all sizes in capital markets, M&A and corporate governance. Our Corporate practice and our Non-Profit/Charities law practices were recognized as Tier 1 practices in the 2010 and 2011-2012 editions of U.S. News-Best Lawyers. Securities experience includes public offerings and private placements of debt and equity, IPOs, shelf offerings, closed-end fund offerings and public stock-for-stock mergers. Transactional experience extends to cross-border transactions, management buyouts, restructurings and private equity and venture capital investments. Corporate attorneys assist in proxy fights and other hostile matters and often function as principal outside counsel to assist clients with business development, joint ventures, technology transfers and commercial endeavors. The office represents commercial and investment banks, finance companies, private equity and venture capital funds, corporate borrowers and high net worth individuals in domestic and international commercial lending transactions.

The Chicago Office has a deep bench of litigators who have, for decades, successfully represented domestic and international clients at trial and on appeal in “high stakes” disputes brought in state and federal courts throughout the country as well as in arbitrations and other forms of alternative dispute resolution. Our litigators are renown for obtaining either the dismissal or highly favorable resolution of claims in all forms of securities litigation, including class and shareholder derivative actions, multi-district litigation, corporate takeover and proxy litigation and SEC investigations. These clients include prominent financial institutions, mutual funds, trustees of mutual funds and investment advisors, accounting and consulting firms and manufacturers and distributors across diverse industries. Our litigators also specialize in the defense of actions involving construction defects, professional liability, employment discrimination, unfair competition and deceptive trade practices. We are National Litigation Counsel for one of the largest manufacturers of marine products in the world, and our attorneys in the products liability practice regularly defend manufacturers of automobiles, trucks, industrial equipment and fitness and recreational equipment.