Biography: Commercial Litigation

Charles W Douglas is a senior trial lawyer in Sidley's Chicago office. He has extensive litigation experience in major antitrust, trade regulation, securities, product liability and commercial litigation, and is the former head of the firm's commercial, competition and securities litigation group.

Mr Douglas's experience includes numerous major trials in a variety of complex cases. For instance, he recently tried a major price-fixing class action for AT&T Corp in Kansas City. Following a six-week trial, the jury returned a verdict on the claim for AT&T. In recent years, he also tried and won two major securities cases for the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche LLP. He also tried a major securities class action before a jury in Trenton, New Jersey, in which the plaintiff sought billions of dollars in damages but which resulted in a favourable settlement for AT&T Corp after three weeks of trial.

He has also tried three major cases in New York and Chicago. In one case, he led the successful defence of GD Searle & Co (now a part of Pfizer) in an antitrust class action seeking billions of dollars in damages. Following 10 weeks of trial, and before Searle even had to put on a defence, the judge directed a verdict for the defendants. Seventeen other pharmaceutical companies had previously paid over $700 million to settle the same claims. In that same year, he successfully defended AT&T in two major trials, including one where the plaintiffs were awarded nothing on their claims while AT&T was awarded $26 million on its counterclaims against the plaintiffs. His trial work for AT&T has spanned two decades, dating back to the representation of AT&T and the Regional Bell Operating Companies in various antitrust actions, including the 1985 damages retrial of MCI's claims in which MCI received less than 1 per cent of the claimed damages.

Mr Douglas has been trial counsel for several of the firm's clients in a wide range of cases. He successfully tried and won a major case for IBP Inc brought by the United States Department of Agriculture and involving a novel application of the Packers & Stockyards Act, which would have had far-reaching consequences for the entire meat-packing industry. He also tried and won a major antitrust case for Zenith Electronics in Oklahoma where the jury, after a three-week trial, returned a verdict in Zenith's favour on all counts after less than an hour of deliberations.

Mr Douglas has been a partner in the firm since 1980, a member of the firm's executive committee since 1989 and a member of its management committee since 1993. He has served as chairman of the firm's management committee since 1999.

He is also a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and serves as a trustee of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the NALP Foundation, Children's Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University.

Mr Douglas received his JD from Harvard Law School in 1974 and his BA from Northwestern University in 1970. He is admitted in Illinois.