Elizabeth Rebecca Bacon Ehlers

I am an experienced and pragmatic lawyer who assists corporations in the areas of privacy and data protection concerns, business disputes of all sorts, commercial and consumer related litigation, and lots of other issues that arise in the course of doing business in today's complex economy.  

I believe in achieving real results that make a positive difference to you and your business. After twenty five years of practice in jurisdictions all over this country, I do not believe that our legal system is necessarily the best or even an effective way to solve any problem that is 1) important to you or your business; 2) involves significant resources or assets, or 3) has any real degree of time sensitivity. That being said, I have successfully tried lots of state and federal court cases and profitably settled many, many more.  

I will help you assess the issues, identify the options and develop a game plan to get your business where you want it to be. As a team, we can work together to steer daily corporate decisions around the inevitable hurdles of legal liability and guide the business forward in coordination with your vision and aspirations.

Prior to joining this firm, I was Senior Counsel for Motorola in Schaumburg, IL, where I managed both commercial and government litigation portfolios for one of four global business units.  Prior to that, I was a litigation and trial partner at DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, LLP, Chicago, IL (1997 – 2006) and Katten, Muchin & Zavis, Chicago, IL (1996 – 1997). During these years of private practice, I represented clients in a wide variety of matters, including class action suits; multi-district litigation; multi-jurisdictional consumer fraud claims; professional malpractice claims; misapplied RICO liability theories; product liability and national consumer recall issues; corporate control contests; and franchise system/securities issues.  I have also represented the interests of carriers in primary and multi-layer liability matters, and reinsurers in treaty disputes, advised multi-departmental corporations on data retention policies and compliance best practices, and coordinated pending commercial litigation with related insolvency proceedings in several jurisdictions. 

In matters of public record, my clients have included Unilever, Nestle, The Hartford, UPS, AON, Mail Boxes, Etc., Baxter International, Allegiance, Trans Union Corporation, Tricon Foods, Salerno Foods, Taco Bell, Outsource Temporary Staffing, Quest Diagnostics, FINOVA Capital Corporation, Queens Health Systems, McDonald’s, Farley Industries, Fruit of the Loom, LifeSource and Snap-on Tools Corporation.  I have also designed and presented numerous training seminars for professional audiences, including Motorola, AON, Fireman’s Fund, The Tribune Company, Meredith Corporation, DePaulUniversity and ABA Section of Litigation.

I am licensed to practice in the State of Illinois, before Trial Bar of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and In the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.  In addition, I have appeared through numerous pro hac viceadmissions in state and federal courts throughout the United States. 

I graduated from the Loyola University of Chicago School of Law with a Juris Doctorate in 1989. Prior to that, I completed my undergraduate work at The College of Wooster in Wooster, OH where I received a B.A. in History/Women’s Studies in 1985.