Theodore M. Becker

Partner

Theodore M. Becker is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Litigation Practice. Mr. Becker has more than 25 years of experience in litigation, including class actions and dispute resolution, practicing across the country in the federal, state, and bankruptcy courts; before administrative and regulatory agencies; and in arbitration, mediation, and alternative dispute resolution proceedings. He has represented clients in a wide variety of legal areas and industries, including matters involving business, commercial, contract and corporate disputes, civil rights, employment, employee benefits, ERISA, ESOPs, financial services, franchising, hospitality, healthcare, intellectual property, real estate, RICO, securities, trademark infringement, unfair competition, and workouts.

Mr. Becker has successfully represented clients ranging from individuals and small companies to financial institutions and the largest multinational corporations. He has obtained a number of multimillion-dollar recoveries for his clients and has successfully defended many clients against multimillion-dollar claims. He achieved national recognition when he obtained a $52 million jury verdict for one of his clients for a breach of a "handshake" agreement. That case is included in the curricula of major law schools and colleges.

Mr. Becker has represented employers in a number of lawsuits involving claims of age, gender, and race discrimination and sexual harassment, as well as breaches of fiduciary duty, noncompetition covenants, and misappropriation of customer lists, trade secrets, and confidential and proprietary information.

An accomplished practitioner in employment, ERISA, and ESOP litigation, Mr. Becker was lead counsel and won summary judgment for the institutional ESOP Trustee in Armstrong v. Amsted Industries, Inc., 33 EBC 1385 (N.D. Ill. 2004), a multidistrict class action lawsuit brought by employees of Amsted Industries, a large ESOP company. The plaintiff class sought nearly $300 million for alleged breaches of fiduciary duty they claimed caused the value of the company's stock to decline. This case was closely watched in the ESOP community nationwide.

Over the years Mr. Becker has represented healthcare companies and insurers in actions under ERISA and other federal and state laws, and in a variety of other types of litigation, including claims for improper plan termination, denial of benefits, breach of contract, securities fraud, unfair competition, and disputes concerning mergers and acquisitions. He successfully represented a large HMO as plaintiff in an action to enjoin the breach of a $27 million annual (oral) contract to provide group healthcare services to Chicago teachers and staff. He successfully defended a large PPO that served, among other insureds, all of the Cook County judges, in a class action brought by a competing PPO to enjoin and declare invalid a contract to provide group healthcare services to Cook County employees. He successfully defended a national physical therapy company in an action brought by a large national competitor seeking injunctive relief and more than $10 million in damages for alleged misconduct in the recruiting of the competitor's managerial employees and physical therapists, and for alleged interference with contract and prospective business relations with various physical therapy facilities.

For many years Mr. Becker has represented national and international franchisors and other companies in a wide variety of industries, including the hotel, food, restaurant, automobile, and tool industries, in litigation across the full spectrum of disputes relating to franchising and distribution. These matters have included claims relating to breaches of franchise agreements; franchise terminations, transfers, and renewals; violations of franchise disclosure, relationship, and business opportunity laws; antitrust and unfair competition claims; trademark, trade dress and trade secret infringement; violation of noncompetition and nonsolicitation covenants; real estate construction and financing disputes; as well as a number of other issues arising in the course of relationships with franchisees, distributors, and dealers.

Mr. Becker is included in the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers and is rated "AV" (the highest rating) by the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory. He is also included in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America, and Who's Who in American Law.

Mr. Becker was a Russell Sage Fellow at Yale University Law School, where he taught, and a Fellow of the Northwestern University Program in Law and the Social Sciences. He has written or co-authored numerous articles and book chapters, and was editorial director of an entire issue of the Northwestern University Law Review that was reprinted as a book (Public Access to Information, Transaction Press, 1979).

Mr. Becker received his J.D., summa cum laude, from Northwestern University in 1974, where he was named to the Order of the Coif. Also from Northwestern University, in 1981 he earned his Ph.D. in sociology, and in 1972, his M.A. in sociology. In 1970, he received his A.B., summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Washington University, St. Louis.

Mr. Becker is admitted to practice in Illinois and before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, and Federal Circuits.