Mary Ellen Hennessy

Mary Ellen Hennessy concentrates her practice on class actions and complex commercial litigation, arbitration and mediation, with an emphasis on litigation involving claims under the securities and antitrust laws. She also has extensive experience in litigation matters involving for-profit, postsecondary education, including shareholder and student class, derivative and individual actions. Ms. Hennessy has repeatedly been recognized as one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in Illinois, as well as an Illinois Super Lawyer in Securities Litigation, in the Illinois Super Lawyers yearly surveys.

As a trial lawyer, Ms. Hennessy has represented publicly traded companies and their directors and officers in securities class and derivative actions. In that regard, she has tried both fraud on the market class and individual securities fraud actions in the federal courts, including successfully defending individual defendants in one of the only fraud on the market, insider trading class actions ever to go to trial through verdict and appeal. She has also represented individual directors and officers in connection with breach of fiduciary duty claims, as well as special committees and special litigation committees of boards of directors faced with claims brought both directly and derivatively. In addition, she represented companies in antitrust class and opt-out actions.

Ms. Hennessy has been involved in the representation of foreign and domestic companies such as Schenker, Inc., Le Carbone Lorraine, Career Education Corporation, Motorola/General Instrument Corporation, Ball Corporation, Caremark, Inc., Fruit of the Loom, Inc., The Chicago White Sox, Wells Fargo, The American Express Company, Daytona Power & Light, and Kemper Corporation. She has a record of consistent success in her motion practice, in jury and nonjury cases she has tried in the federal and state courts, and in arbitrations held before the American Arbitration Association, the New York Stock Exchange and the International Chamber of Commerce. She has also practiced extensively in the federal appellate courts and before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, and has engaged in significant mediation practice involving class, antitrust and complex commercial claims.

Ms. Hennessy has spoken on issues relating to the securities laws, including the impact of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act on class action and derivative claims, as well as the fiduciary duties of directors and officers. She also co-chaired the 1996 National Conference for Women Litigators held in Chicago.

Ms. Hennessy graduated cum laude from Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York, and received her Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center.