Russell Perdew

P. Russell Perdew litigates complex commercial, class action, and tort cases in jurisdictions across the country. Rusty represents clients in numerous, typically consumer-facing, industries, with a specific focus on the financial services industry, and product manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.

Rusty aggressively defends his clients in class action and high-exposure individual cases alleging violation of state consumer-fraud or deceptive-trade-practice statutes, common-law fraud, and breach of contract, as well as personal injury claims sounding in negligence and strict liability.

Rusty frequently defends financial services companies, including banks, credit unions, and residential mortgage lenders and servicers in cases alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), Truth in Lending Act (TILA), the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA and FACTA), the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), federal and state False Claims Acts (qui tam cases), the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), provisions of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and Bankruptcy Rules, and state consumer protection statutes.

Rusty also closely follows and writes on legal developments involving statutes creating class-action liability for companies, including the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA)

Rusty protects clients’ valuable trade-secret information by initiating litigation and mandatory arbitrations and obtaining emergency injunctions to prevent the dissemination and illegal use of proprietary information.

Rusty teaches as an adjunct professor in two classes at Northwestern University School of Law—Trial Advocacy and Civil Discovery. In that capacity, he instructs, critiques, and grades law students on courtroom skills, including direct and cross-examination, opening statements, and closing arguments. He also lectures and directs classroom exercises regarding various aspects of pre-trial discovery.

Examples of Rusty’s recent cases include:

• Obtaining a rarely-issued supervisory order from the Illinois Supreme Court, which vacated the trial court’s order of substantial and punitive sanctions and ended the sanctions proceedings
• Defending a loan servicer against multiple class actions in Florida and New Jersey alleging the servicer charged premiums for lender-placed insurance that were allegedly inflated by improper kickbacks paid to the servicer
• Defending a series of class actions against a residential mortgage servicer and affiliates alleging that late fees, property-inspection fees, property-valuation (BPO) fees, and other charges for default-related services were inflated or improper under the loan contract and various state and federal consumer protection statutes
• Advising a manufacturer of personal care products in connection with a cluster of claims alleging that hair dye was defective because of the potential for an allergic reaction
• Defending a large qui tam case alleging mortgage industry defendants made false statements regarding the nature and recoverability of homeowner association (HOA) fees
• Advising a national membership club in a cluster of “bet-the-company” class actions by consumers alleging violations of RICO and various state consumer protection statutes for alleged misleading conduct in selling memberships, leading to approval of a classwide settlement
• Defending class actions filed by borrowers alleging violations of TILA and other claims in connection with payment-option adjustable-rate loans (“Option ARM loans”)

Education :

• J.D., Northwestern University School of Law, 1999
• B.A., summa cum laude, Bradley University, 1996

Admissions :

• Illinois, 1999
• Indiana, 2000
• Wisconsin, 2013

Admitted To Practice :

• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
• Supreme Court of Wisconsin
• U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana
• U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin
• U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana