Sidney N. (Skip) Herman

Click here for magazine profile, 2008

An original founder of Bartlit Beck, Skip spent 25 years as its Managing Partner. Along the way he tried cases and served as consigliere to numerous clients of the firm. Skip is currently Chairman of the firm. 

Cases Tried or Otherwise Taken to Judgment

United Technologies/Pratt & Whitney
Coordinated defense of antitrust trial seeking $1B in damages. Four-month trial. Defense verdict.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
Counsel to company in sensitive $5B joint venture negotiations.

University of Pennsylvania
Lead counsel in patent claims over Magnetic Resonance Imaging technology against General Electric.

Katy Industries
Four-week jury trial in defense of securities fraud class action in Wilmington, Delaware. Defense verdict.

---

Dun & Bradstreet, Inc.
Represented Dun & Bradstreet in defense of defamation claims arising from inaccurate credit reports in Sacramento, Spokane, Fort Worth, Chicago, Denver, and Alexandria. All cases won with jury or at appellate level.

Brought fifteen suits in federal courts to enjoin misuse of D&B's Credit Reference Book and database of business information. All resulted in injunction in favor of client.

Assisted in ten-week trial in defense of antitrust claims, secured defense verdict, and won copyright counterclaim. Case described in The Trial lawyers, St. Martin's Press, 1988, pp.1-40.

Miles Laboratories
Trial counsel in litigation involving potential sale of trade secrets by Miles scientists to Taiwan. Summary judgment granted for client.

Other Representative Cases

Merry Gentleman, LLC v. George and Leona Productions, Inc., and Michael Keaton (U.S. District Court, N.D. Ill. 2014)
Represented Michael Keaton and George and Leona Productions, Inc. in dispute concerning services performed in connection with the motion picture "The Merry Gentleman." Summary judgment granted for client, and affirmed by Seventh Circuit.

United Technologies/Pratt & Whitney
Represented United Technologies in $250 million antitrust action involving market for noise reduction alternative for jet engines.

Represented United Technologies in patent infringement and trade secret action involving reactive metal thermal coating, specifications, and blueprints for jet engine components.

Represented Pratt & Whitney Canada in series of actions alleging defects in client's turboprop engines.

NL Industries, Inc.
Primary responsibilities in proxy contest to acquire control of Lockheed Corporation. Responsible for shareholder contacts, press relations, and campaign support.

Lead counsel in defense of claim by factory workers that they developed silicosis by breathing chemicals manufactured by NL. Claim withdrawn for nominal damages.

General coordination of forty+ cases handled by Kirkland & Ellis for NL.

---

Todd Shipyards Corporation
Advisor to shareholder group that took control of NYSE concern in 1991.

General corporate litigation counseling.

Invited to join Board of Directors.

American Steel Wool/Global Material Technologies
Corporate counsel on all litigation and counseling matters for largest United States industrial steel wool manufacturer.

Chief counsel in acquisition of NYBCO, Inc., a public company purchased out of bankruptcy.

Victory for client in three trials in series of actions to enforce noncompete agreements and tortious acts by former salesmen.

Bayer, A.G./Miles Laboratories
Counseling on mass tort litigation

Lead counsel in trade secret theft litigation over taking of protected diagnostic formulas to Taiwan.

Represented the Ames medical diagnostic products division, including handling sensitive internal investigations.

Dominick's Consumer Class Actions
Argued and won interlocutory appeal. Settled for coupon credit, no cash payment. (Denis, et al. v. Dominick's)

Chief counsel for large Chicago food chain in five separate consumer class actions involving various substantive claims. (Geary, et al. v. Dominick's)

Request to enjoin client's method of charging for tax on medical appliances denied after TRO hearing. Argued and won interlocutory appeal. Settled for coupon credit, no cash payment. (Lusinski, et al. v. Dominick's)

Meat fraud class action settled for coupon credit. Case described in Prime Rip, by Wayne Swanson (Prentice-Hall, 1982), pp. 208-236. (Harris, et al. v. Dominick's)

Fraudulent sweepstakes claim withdrawn by class representative after year of litigation.

Copperweld
Landmark antitrust case holding that intra-corporate activities cannot violate Section 1 of the Sherman Act. On brief in Seventh Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court. (Independence Tube v. Copperweld)

---

Professional Activities and Community Service

Board of Managers, Haverford College, 2013-2018

Board of Directors, Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc., 1996- 2014

Law Board, Northwestern University School of Law, 1998-Present

Council of Trustees, Montana Land Reliance, 2011-Present

Board of Trustees, Francis W. Parker School, 1997-2004

Board of Directors, Global Material Technologies, 1984-2002

Board of Directors, Todd Shipyards, 1992

Board of Directors, Sigmatron, Inc., 1984-1988