Martin B. Carroll
Martin Carroll is a founding partner, Chair of the Litigation Group and Managing Partner of the Firm. Martin represents corporate and individual clients in trials and appellate proceedings in state and federal courts in complex commercial litigation matters involving breach of contract, restrictive covenants, unfair competition, employment, banking, fraud, and trade secrets. Martin has successfully argued appeals before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the Illinois Appellate Court.
As outside general counsel for several companies, Martin also reviews, negotiates and drafts a wide variety of contracts for his clients, including supply agreements, procurement contracts, software contracts, stocking agreements and purchase orders. In addition, he frequently represents companies and executives in negotiating and documenting employment contracts, severance agreements, and non-solicitation and non-compete agreements.
Martin also has extensive experience in representing clients in real estate disputes involving construction matters, commercial foreclosures, landlord-tenant disputes and receiverships, including the Block 37 and Chicago Spire cases.
Martin has represented clients such as American Dental Association, Athletico, Bank of America, CBRE, Colliers, Cushman and Wakefield, Essendant, Etihad Airways, H&R Block, Jewel Food Stores, Kemper Sports Management, Lansinoh, Marathon Oil, McGladrey, Old Republic, Omni Hotels, Rogers & Holland Jewelers, Seda North America, and Supervalu among others.
- Represents a Fortune 500 company with respect to numerous breaches of contract and real estate disputes in Illinois.
- Represents a Fortune 500 company in litigation involving breach of employment contracts and restrictive covenants. Successfully tried to verdict enforcement of a former officer’s non- competition agreement.
- Successfully defended a bank against a multi-million dollar claim by a title insurer alleging the bank and eight other banks had violated the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act with respect to collateral they received from loans entered into with borrowers who separately had engaged in a massive fraudulent mortgage escrow scheme. Our client’s motion for summary judgment was granted dismissing the title insurer’s claims and was affirmed on appeal by the Seventh Circuit.
- Successfully represented an international airline in action brought against it and one of its officers by officer’s former employer, another international airline who alleged breach of his non-competition agreement and sought to prohibit the officer from working for our airline client. After successfully defeating the plaintiff’s motion for a temporary restraining order, the plaintiff ultimately dismissed its case without receiving any compensation from our clients.
- Successfully represented an aviation company in obtaining a favorable settlement prior to trial in action against former officer related to his embezzlement of funds and usurpation of corporate opportunities.
- Represented receivers in significant commercial foreclosure cases including Block 37, the Spire development, River East and numerous other commercial retail, office and industrial properties in a range of assignments including: litigating and negotiating settlements with mechanic lien claimants, litigating lease disputes and eviction proceedings, negotiating construction contracts, obtaining bids and drafting agreements for receiver funding certificates, negotiating with utilities regarding continuing service, and negotiating settlements with the City of Chicago regarding minority hiring requirements on construction projects.
- Defended a leading insurance company in a class action complaint brought by individuals claiming to have been defrauded of millions of dollars by our client and several other insurance companies who employed an agent that had set up a Ponzi scheme. The case ultimately settled for an amount less than the projected cost to defend the case.
- Successfully argued before the Wisconsin Supreme Court a case involving a commercial real estate dispute in which our client was awarded all damages sought and attorneys’ fees.
- Representing lenders in numerous commercial foreclosure cases involving retail centers, standalone retail developments, industrial property, housing developments, hotels, condominium conversion projects and vacant land in Cook, DuPage, Will, Lake, McHenry and Winnebago counties.
- Successfully tried to verdict a claim by a real estate development client against a bank regarding a dispute involving a large loan prepayment penalty.
- Represented a large title insurance company in a case against an entity that was involved in fraudulently obtaining title to residential properties from unsuspecting homeowners and obtained a judgment restoring title to the rightful owners along with a judgment that included an award of punitive damages against the wrongdoers.
- Successfully prosecuted and defended numerous non-compete, non-solicitation and trade secret cases in both state and federal court proceedings.
- Successfully represented a Midwest chain of restaurants in a trade secrets and breach of contract case brought by its competitor. The suit sought millions of dollars in royalties and damages. Our client’s motion for summary judgment was granted and our client was completely exonerated from all claims of wrongdoing at both the trial court and appellate levels.
- Successfully represented a national wholesale floral company in a suit brought against its former officer and his new company for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty claims. The defendants ultimately agreed to pay substantial damages to our client.
- Defended a national real estate investment firm in litigation involving claims of fraud and breach of contract alleged by a brokerage company resulting from the sale of a multi-million dollar property in Chicago. Our client’s motion for summary judgment was granted with no damages paid to the plaintiff.
Illinois Supreme Court
Fischel & Kahn, Ltd. v. Van Straaten Gallery, Inc., 189 Ill 2d 579, 727 N.E.2d 240 (Ill. 2000)
United States Courts of Appeals
Cornielsen v. Infinium Capital Management, 916 F. 3d 589 (7th Cir, 2019)
Fidelity v. Howard Savings Bank, 436 F. 3d 836 (7th Cir. 2006)
Helm v. Resolution Trust Corp., 84 F.3d 874 (7th Cir. 1996)
Liautaud v. Liautaud, 221 F.3d 981 (7th Cir. 2000)
Vasquez v. Hernandez, 60 F.3d 325 (7th Cir. 1995)
Wisconsin Supreme Court
Walters v. National Properties, LLC, 699 N.W.2d 71 (WI 2005)
United States District Courts
Capra v. Snyder, 2019 WL 3935045 (N.D. Ill 2019)
Johnson v. Oystacher, 2018 WL 5249229 (N.D. Ill. 2018)
Cox v. Jed Capital, LLC, 2014 WL 3397216 (N.D. Ill. 2014)
Rubloff v. Supervalu, 2013 WL 441152 (N. D. Ill. 2013)
Morse v. Abbott Laboratories, 756 F. Supp. 1108 (N.D., Ill. 1991)
Cruz‐Nunez v. Kimco Corp., 2008 WL 5142398, No. 08 C 3841 (N.D. Ill. 2008)
Jones Day v. Blockshopper, LLC, 2008 WL 4925644, (N.D. Ill. 2008)
Illinois Appellate Court
3Red Group of Illinois, LLC. v. Johnson, 2022 IL App (1st) 200593 (2022)
3Red Group of Illinois, LLC. v. Johnson, 2019 IL App (1st) 171104-U (2019)
Egidi v. Town of Libertyville, 578 N.E.2d (2d Dist. 1991)
In 2007 and every year since 2010, Martin has been selected to the list of Illinois Super Lawyers as published in Chicago Magazine. Only five percent of lawyers in Illinois are selected for inclusion to the Illinois Super Lawyers list on an annual, state-by-state basis.
Since 2005, Martin has been consistently named a Leading Lawyer in commercial and banking litigation by The Law Bulletin Publishing Company. Only lawyers who are most often recommended by their peers in the statewide surveys are included in Leading Lawyers Magazine.
Martin is also a Fellow in the Litigation Counsel of America.