Charles E. Harris, a partner in Mayer Brown’s Litigation & Dispute Resolution group, focuses his practice on a range of matters of paramount importance to the business community, including class actions, arbitration agreements, contract and real estate disputes, administrative actions, and privacy and cybersecurity.
Charles has also handled many First Amendment cases alleging defamation and other privacy torts. In addition, as a registered patent attorney, he has litigated patent, copyright, trademark and trade secrets disputes. He also represents clients on appeal in both federal and state courts.
Charles has distinguished himself as a versatile lawyer who possesses abilities in many areas of litigation. For instance, he has prepared matters for trial, tried cases to completion, and argued appeals in state and federal courts.
Further, he has successfully defended individual and class action suits arising under the TCPA, AIPA, FCRA, FDCPA and state consumer fraud statutes and he has defended suits seeking damages due to data security breaches.
Charles has litigated dozens of actions to enforce arbitration agreements. In doing so, he has faced many threshold questions of arbitrability, such as whether the court or an arbitrator decides if an arbitration agreement permits class arbitration. Charles has also represented clients engaged in arbitration concerning a range of subject matters before the AAA, ICDR, ICC and IFTA. And he himself acts as an arbitrator in commercial disputes before the AAA.
Charles has also defended clients in administrative actions before agencies such as the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation (IDFPR) and the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR). He has handled administrative hearings before these bodies, and administrative reviews of their decisions in trial and appellate courts.
Education :
- Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, JD, summa cum laude
- North Carolina Central University
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, BS
Admissions :
- Illinois
- New York
- US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- US Patent and Trademark Office
Activities :
- County Commissioner, Cook County Commission on Human Rights (2013-present)
- Board Member, Victory Gardens Theater (2014-present)
- Board Member, Heartland Human Care Services (2012-present)
- Board Member, Chicago Committee on Large Law Firms (2013-present)
Experience :
- Munguia v. State of Illinois. Represented the Regional Transportation Authority of northeastern Illinois in a Title VI class action discrimination lawsuit brought by minority riders of the Chicago Transit Authority.
- Gunartt v. Rent-A-Center. Served as lead counsel in successfully representing the nation’s largest rent-to-own company in an action seeking to invalidate the company’s consumer arbitration clause.
- Billingnetwork v. LOGITBIT. Served as lead co-counsel for a software company in a patent infringement matter alleging that the company’s enterprise software infringes a patent covering a billing system.
- Franklin Park O’Hare v. Digital Realty Trust. Represented Digital in real estate litigation regarding the completion of a state-of-the-art data center and the removal of a holdover tenant.
- Cleveland-Cliffs v. ArcelorMittal. Represented ArcelorMittal in separate arbitrations, both of which concerned the sale and purchase of iron ore pellets.
- In re Global Crossing Ltd. Securities Litig. Defended Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in a securities fraud class action brought by investors in Global Crossing who claimed that the corporation made false statements to them.
Cost
Rate : $$$