BigLaw firm to review Chicago in-house team after police shooting defense verdict is struck
The longtime chief of a major Chicago-based international law firm has been put in charge of a third-party review of the conduct of a division of Chicago in-house lawyers.
Announced last week, in the wake of a stunning civil rights trial loss, the review is to be headed by Dan Webb, the city’s corporation counsel said Sunday. Webb, who currently serves as co-chair of Winston & Strawn, now has oversight power concerning the city’s Federal Civil Rights Litigation Division. The 45-attorney unit division defends city police in cases of alleged misconduct.
Webb is a former federal prosecutor who also represents the city of Ferguson, Missouri, after high-profile public protests over the police shooting case there. He told the Chicago Tribune (sub. req.) that his agreement with Chicago corporation counsel Stephen Patton allows him a free rein “to kind of tear apart their practices and procedures,” as well as to refer any potential cases of misconduct he may uncover to the city’s inspector general.
Webb is charging the city a discounted $295 billable hourly rate instead of his usual fee of $1,335, the Chicago Sun-Times (sub. req.) reports.
The review by Winston & Strawn comes after a Jan. 4 ruling by a federal judge. It not only reversed a defense jury verdict in a civil case over the fatal 2011 police shooting of Darius Pinex but said the city and one of its attorneys, Jordan Marsh, had to pay the plaintiff’s attorney fees, as USA Today reported last week.
The judge said Marsh, who has since resigned from his job, concealed evidence and misled the court about doing so.
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Chicago mayor orders ‘third-party review’ of federal civil rights litigators after verdict tossed”
Related coverage;
ABAJournal.com: “Winston chairman will earn $1,300 an hour to represent Ferguson in Justice Department probe”
