Chuck Baum practices in the areas of general and commercial civil litigation.  One of the firm's most experienced trial attorneys, he has tried more than 200 cases, before both bench and jury. 

Mr. Baum's experience in civil litigation includes matters based on contract, warranty, fraud, civil rights, foreclosure, collection, malpractice, negligence and environmental violations.  A former prosecutor, he also has experience in many criminal matters, including homicide, domestic violence, juvenile law, and weapons, narcotics and contraband offenses.

A significant portion of his litigation practice is devoted to franchise and distribution matters. Mr. Baum's practice also includes the representation of municipalities and property owners in eminent domain matters, and matters related to construction and real estate development litigation.

Among Mr. Baum’s notable cases include his representation of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago in land acquisition for the Deep Tunnel project.

Mr. Baum’s previous experience includes work as prosecutor for Will County, Illinois. During law school, he was a specially licensed prosecutor in the Cook and McHenry Counties State’s Attorneys’ Offices. During his time as a prosecutor, Mr. Baum conducted continuing education seminars for police officers about recent changes in criminal law.

Bar Admissions & Memberships

• Illinois
• United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois
• United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
• United States Supreme Court

Education

• J.D. - The John Marshall Law School, 1995
• B.S. - DePaul University, 1991

Civic and Community Involvement

• Board of Directors, John Marshall Law School Alumni Association

Representative Matters

• Jake Flowers, Inc. v. Herb Kaiser and Linda Kaiser, 2002 WL 31906688 (N.D.Ill. 2002) (franchisor that materially breaches franchise agreement cannot enforce provisions of same agreement against franchisee)
• Reese v. Ice Cream Specialties, Inc., 347 F.3d 1007, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 22296 (7th Cir. Ind., 2003) (obtained reversal on appeal of Title VII employment discrimination claim alleging disparate pay; case involved employee who did not realize that raise had never been awarded and filed EEOC race discrimination claim and argued on appeal that his claim was timely under the continuing violation theory because each week's paycheck was a fresh discriminatory act; the court concluded that each new paycheck was a separate wrong and the employee's claims for pay within the 300-day period were not time barred)
• Successful prosecution of motion to dissolve a TRO entered against municipal client; second-lowest bidder had previously obtained a TRO which voided client’s awarded maintenance contract based upon alleged preferential treatment of the lowest bidder in the bidding process, which potentially could have cost municipality several hundred thousand dollars
• Prosecution of several commercial breach of contract matters for banking client regarding the collection of amounts owed to client; one such matter involved alleged fraud and forgery by associate of adverse party, uncovered fraud scheme and successfully negotiated settlement shortly after discovery
• Defense of quick-take bench trial and subsequent jury trial of eminent domain matter involving several expert engineers and appraisers; obtained award for retail developer client in excess of $100,000 over initial settlement offer
• Defense of quick-take bench trial of eminent domain matter involving several expert appraisers; obtained award for industrial developer in excess of five times the initial offer
• Prosecution of quick-take bench trial of commercial property eminent domain matter involving several expert appraisers; successfully obtained award for municipal client
• Successful defense of alleged trademark/trade name/trade dress infringement matter for truck rental franchisee involving breach of contract and restrictive covenant/non-compete; prevented the issuance of temporary restraining order seeking to shut down client’s operations
• Defense of federal matter for restaurant franchisee involving Lanham Act, common law trademark/trade name/trade dress infringement, breach of contract and restrictive covenant/non-compete; successfully defeated plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment as to breach of contract counterclaim; obtained successful settlement as to remainder of issues
• Successful defense of nursing home in action brought by relatives of resident/patient to terminate agreement between client and resident/patient on grounds of improper treatment; defeated plaintiff’s motion for temporary restraining order and obtained dismissal of matter in its entirety
• Prosecution of federal state-wide asset collection matter against several affiliated health care facilities for breach of service contracts involving state-wide asset seizure and citation proceedings in order facilitate time-sensitive asset freezes of defendant’s assets; collection efforts yielded significant frozen assets which led directly to a favorable settlement in excess of one million dollars
• Defense of federal civil RICO and Section 1983 civil rights matter involving alleged violations occurring over a period of more than twenty years; brought successful motions to dismiss on several legal theories as to the great majority of plaintiffs’ claims