Overview
Daniel J. Becka, admitted in Illinois, California, and Florida, is Of Counsel to the Law Firm of Schoeppl Law, P.A. Mr. Becka is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Mr. Becka has over three decades of experience in handling complex litigation matters in state and federal courts and before arbitration panels throughout the country. Mr. Becka is well-versed in large and complicated cases as well as those with a more narrow focus.
Mr. Becka has worked with both large and boutique law firms practicing in Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, California; and Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton, Florida before returning to Chicago in 2001. Mr. Becka has represented companies and individuals in a wide variety of complex commercial matters throughout the country, including class actions, corporate derivative actions, securities litigation and arbitration, libel and defamation, fraud, employment, contract, landlord/tenant matters, consumer fraud and deceptive practices, corporate law, professional malpractice, trade secrets and intellectual property, insurance/reinsurance litigation, commercial financing litigation, corporate and securities transactions, and state and federal trial and appellate practice. Mr. Becka often co-counsels with other firms on larger cases and is also Of Counsel to the law firm of Gaido & Fintzen (www.gaido-fintzen.com).
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Areas of Practice:
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Litigation Percentage:
- 100% of Practice Devoted to Litigation
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Notable Cases
Mr. Becka represented a large health care company listed on the New York Stock Exchange in a legal malpractice lawsuit against Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the oldest and most prestigious law firms in the country, arising from a corporate reorganization and refinancing of more than $1 billion of the company’s bonds. Defended by two large New York and Washington, D.C., law firms, Mr. Becka was the attorney responsible for prosecuting the plaintiff’s case at a Chicago boutique litigation firm where he practiced for ten years before opening his own firm in 2011. After defeating various substantive and procedural pre-trial motions through creative legal strategies, completing intensive discovery involving at least thirteen different experts and preparing the case for trial, the defendant agreed to a settlement of almost $26 million.
Mr. Becka was also appointed as class counsel for 2,200 senior United Airlines pilots in a class-action lawsuit against their union, the Air Line Pilots Association International (“ALPA”), filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The suit alleged that ALPA breached its duty of fair representation to United’s senior pilots in favor of the more junior pilots (who made up a majority of the union) in connection with the termination of the pilots’ pension plan as part of United’s bankruptcy reorganization. Opposed by two of Chicago’s largest law firms, Mr. Becka was responsible for developing the legal strategies, conducting extensive discovery (including 35 depositions), and drafting all pleadings and briefs, including the successful oppositions to the motions for summary judgment filed by the defendants which ultimately led to the agreement by ALPA to a settlement of $44 million.