Hon. Kenneth L. Gillis (Ret.) is a skilled mediator and settlement judge with 46 years of combined judicial and legal experience.  Since 2000, he has focused exclusively on arbitration and mediation services.  Judge Gillis has mediated or arbitrated over 1,000 cases totaling over $700,000,000.  As a judge, he tried over 150 cases to verdict.

ADR Experience and Qualifications

• Full-time arbitrator and mediator, 2000-present.
• 19 year judicial career includes serving on Commercial Call and Personal Injury Motion Call, 1993-1999; Chancery and Criminal Divisions, 1978-1990 in the Circuit Court of Cook Country.
• 8 year legal career including: Vice President and General Counsel, Frankel and Company, 1999-2000; First Assistant States’ Attorney, Cook County, Illinois, 1991-1993; Chief Deputy, Special Prosecutions Division and Chief, Appeals Division, Cook County, Illinois State’s Attorney’s Office, 1973-1978.

Successful resolution of the following types of cases:

• Business / Commercial:  minority shareholder rights, dissolution disputes, warranties and workmanship.
• Personal Injury:  wrongful death, products liability, orthopedic, neuralgic, spinal and soft-tissue injuries, catastrophic injury, slip and fall, automobile accident, and dog bite cases
• Buyer/ Seller:  truthfulness in inventory and accounts payable; holdback claims, and workability of products
• Real Estate:  condominium law, developer turnover issues, quiet title, and mortgage finance issues.
• Insurance Coverage:  covered event, excess coverage, and policy limits.
• Construction:  defects, design, and negligence.
• Environment:  toxic waste discharge, underground storage tanks, water pollution and lead paint ingestion.
• Contracts:  all types of contract interpretation, including intellectual property.
• Employment:  just and wrongful discharge, retaliation, discrimination, and non-competes.
• Patent/Trademark:  infringement, prior use, and ownership of information technology.
• Medical Malpractice:  apparent agency and thorough knowledge of standard of care.
• Professional Liability:  lawyer, accountant and D&O responsibility.

Representative Cases

• Settled a legal malpractice involving an attorney who failed to preserve issues for the record.
• Settled accounting malpractice claim against accounting firm for failure to perform as agreed.
• Settled medical malpractice claim involving early discharge of premature baby who died within a week of discharge.
• Settled claim involving installation of information system.  Claims and counterclaims involved failure to perform.
• Settled environmental contamination related to the illegal discharge of waste from a private vehicle into a public waterway, causing the contamination of persons and water supply.
• Hollins v. Mr. T: determined ownership of the Mr. T character and calculated remedies due to creators.
• Resolved multimillion dollar claim involving bank shareholders misled to sell at lower than market value.
• Resolved $400,000 employment claim related to potential future profits.
• Expert witness in The Queen’s Court involving a $96,000,000 claim against a reinsurer related to the September 11, 2001 disaster.
• Settled product liability claim involving infant death related to vertical blind design.

Honors, Memberships and Professional Activities

• Professor, Illinois Institute of Technology—Chicago Kent Law School, Remedies and Trial Advocacy.  Honored with Teaching Award, 2004.
• Member, Chicago Bar Association.
• First Vice-President and Officer, Illinois Judges’ Association.
• Member, ABA Conference of State Trials Judges.

Background and Education

• Illinois Institute of Technology, Kent Law School, LLM, Financial Services, 1990.
• University of Chicago, Law School, JD, 1961.
• Illinois Institute of Technology, BS, Civil Engineering, 1958.