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Attorney Biographies

Thomas R. Meites 
Chicago, Illinois
Partner
phone (312) 263-0272
fax (312) 263-2942
email Email Me

Thomas R. Meites is our founding partner (with former partner Lynn S. Frackman) and a leader in the plaintiffs' bar & Mr. Meites is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, where he was Articles Editor of the Harvard Law Review. He was recently appointed by the President of the United States to a seat on the board of the Legal Services Corporation and is a past member of the Board of Directors of Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago. Mr. Meites is currently a lecturer at Northwestern University's School of Education and Social Policy and previously served as litigation director for Chicago's Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities, a not-for-profit fair housing organization, and as a member of a negotiated rulemaking committee of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Areas of Practice:
Class Actions
Employment Discrimination
Federal Practice
Complex Litigation
Bar Admissions:
Illinois, 1969
U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois Trial Bar, 1982
Education:
Harvard University Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1969
J.D.
Honors: Magna Cum Laude
Law Review: Harvard Law Review, Member, Editorial Board; Articles Editor


Harvard College, 1965
B.A.


Published Works:
"Civil Liberties: Employment Discrimination, Due Process, Immunities and Exhaustion of Remedies (with Kenneth N. Flaxman), 56 Chicago Kent Law Reviews 24, 73, 1980


"Distribution of the Settlement Fund in a Class Action: The Role of the Class Attorney (with Sargent L. Aborn), ABA Section on Litigation, "Litigation", Spring, 1981


"Securities Law" (with Mary Rose Strubbe), 59 Chicago Kent Law Review 709, 1983


"Explaining Deviations from the Fifty-Percent Rule: A Multimodal Approach of the Selection of Cases for Litigation (with Daniel Kessler and Geoffrey Miller), 25 Journal of Legal Studies 233, 1996


Classes/Seminars Taught:
Instructor, Northwestern School of Education and Social Policy, 1999 - Present


Employment Discrimination, "Practice and Procedure in Employment Discrimination Litigation, Including Class Action Principles", Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education, 1981, 1984, and 1985-1987


Professional Associations and Memberships:
Legal Services Corporation, 2003 - Present
Board of Directors


Chicago Council of Lawyers, 1977 - 1982
Board of Governors


Chicago Council of Lawyers, 1986 - Present
Chair, Federal Courts Committee


Appleseed Fund for Justice, 2000 - 2002
Chair


Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, 1978 - 1979
Director


Illinois Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Commission, 1975-1980, 1975 - 1980
Member, Hearing Board


Citizens' Schools Committee, 1971 - 1972
Member, Board of Directors


Chicago Council of Lawyers, 1971 - Present
Member


Past Employment Positions:
Judge J. Edward Lumbard, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Law Clerk, 1969 - 1970


Businessmen for the Public Interest, 1970 - 1971


Private Practice, Chicago, 1971 - 1979


(S.D. Ill.), Special Master to Oversee Remedial Phase of Class Litigation, Mister v. I.C.G.R.R., 81-3006, 1989 - 1993


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