Firm's History

After nine years as a tax lawyer, initially with McDermott Will & Emery, Chicago, focusing in complex civil and criminal tax, transaction and litigation, involving matters of significant size and complexity, our founding attorney Clint Krislov, in 1983, was engaged by retiree participants in the four (eventually five) City of Chicago Annuity and Benefit Funds to pursue the City over delays in the City’s employer contributions to severely underfunded pension plans.  Krislov uncovered the City’s actual conversion of the property tax levies, achieved recoveries of nearly $40 million for the retirement systems, and forced major reforms in the City’s handling of pension tax levies.  The City retaliated by trying to cut off retiree healthcare benefits, triggering litigation in which we have, as class counsel, protected retirees’ healthcare benefits through 2013, when the current settlement expires.  Krislov has continued his "up against the big guys" approach to selecting cases, as in a reported 1989 Chicago Tribune article, ever since.

In the early 1990’s we employed our tax and financial expertise, in pursuing complex valuation, fiduciary breach and corporate buyback litigation.  In the Prudential-Bache Energy Income Securities Litigation, MDL 888 (E.D. La.), we intervened, blocked an inadequate rollup settlement by other firms, forced the disclosure of the internal investigative report showing that Prudential’s limited partnerships had been selected based on kickbacks to the head of Prudential’s Direct Investment Group, forced an auction of the properties, and actually found the high bidder for the properties, producing hundreds of millions of dollars for investors who would otherwise have been wrapped into a new company controlled by the same crooks who had defrauded them in the first place. We then used the information gained in that litigation, and launched the In re Prudential Securities Ltd. Partnerships Securities Litigation, MDL 1005 (S.D.N.Y.) a global civil RICO litigation which produced hundreds of millions of dollars in recoveries for the rest of the investors in the hundreds of Prudential limited partnerships.  

Since then, the firm has been involved in leadership roles in a broad variety of class action, derivative and whistleblower cases on behalf of investors, consumers, whistleblowers, employees and retirees, achieving significant recoveries as well as court decisions that substantially benefit our clients and the class.

We do not participate in every case.  We are selective, and we pride ourselves in obtaining material recoveries, rather than mere cents on the dollar for our clients and the class members we represent. We have frequently obtained full or near-full recovery for the class on its estimated damages despite not obtaining full recovery of our fees.  Simply put, we strive to put our clients’ interests first.
    
We have been favorably mentioned by numerous courts for the work we have done and accomplishments we have achieved and we continue to strive to meet and exceed our clients’ expectations.