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The firm of Katz and Friedman originated when the founding
partners, Harold A. Katz and the late Irving M. Friedman,
formed a partnership in 1954. Harold, a union side lawyer
representing, among others, UAW Region 4 headquartered
in Chicago. Irv was a senior trial attorney for the National
Labor Relations Board, Region 13. In the 1950s, the firm
expanded its representation of its labor union clientele
by representing workers injured in industrial accidents,
as well as their personal injury claims. With the UAW
as the firm's first principal client, the firm has grown
and added many more labor unions as clients.
In labor law, the firm has been involved in a number of
significant labor law decisions before the United States
Supreme Court: 1) NLRB v. Acme Industrial; 2)
Ford Motor Co. v. NLRB; 3) Nachman Corp v. PBGC;
and 4) AT&T Technologies v. CWA. Additionally,
in the 1990s, the firm had a very active, lead role in
the titanic UAW-Caterpillar labor dispute. That dispute
spawned more labor litigation than any other labor dispute
in this country's labor history. The dispute settled only
after the UAW scored decisive victories in the litigation.
In Workers' Compensation, the firm over a period of more
than half a century, has represented over 45,000 injured
workers in the State of Illinois. It is now among the
largest firms representing workers injured on the job
throughout Illinois. The firm has had a significant impact
in preserving and improving the rights and entitlements
of injured workers. For example, the law firm played an
important role in the development of repetitive trauma
as a compensable work accident, by filing a "Friend
of Court" brief in the precedent setting Illinois
Supreme Court case establishing repetitive trauma as an
"accidental injury," and further expanding that
definition in Three 'D' Discount, in which the
court ruled that the injured worker can establish the
"accident" date in a more flexible manner. The
firm's workers' compensation attorneys have furthered
the development of the law on behalf of the injured worker
with respect to many other issues at the Illinois Workers'
Compensation Commission (formerly known as the Industrial
Commission), Circuit Court and Appellate Court levels.
Many significant "personal injury" cases involving automobile collisions, product defects, medical
malpractice claims, and airline crash claims have been pursued by the firm. The law firm has
participated in the prosecution of numerous claims of these types assisting victims and those
injured, resulting in millions of dollars in recovery.
A nationwide employment discrimination class action was
successfully prosecuted by the firm in Leisure v. Western
Electric. The union successfully challenged Western
Electric's longstanding practice of separating pregnant
female employees from work, no matter how fit they were
to continue working. This case is one of the largest sex
discrimination law suits in the history of the United
States, resulting in a settlement of $66,000,000.00.
Over the years, the firm's partners and associates have
been active as bar association leaders, speakers at seminars,
and authors of two labor law textbooks and of many articles.
The firm members have been published in the American Bar
Association Journal, Illinois Bar Journal, The Harvard
Law Review, The University of Chicago Law Review, The
Practicing Law Institute Annual Institute On Employment
Law, and have written "Determining Permanent Partial Disability
in Workers' Compensation Cases" and "Occupational Disease
Claims" for the Illinois Trial Lawyers Workers' Compensation
Notebook, and the "Disability Evaluation" Chapter for
the Illinois Continuing Legal Education publication, as
well as numerous publications for unions and labor newsletters.
In December, 2003, the law firm's 50th anniversary was
covered by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin publication
with a feature story (read
article) on the firm's founding partners, Harold Katz
and Irving Friedman. The law firm of Katz, Friedman, Eagle,
Eisenstein, Johnson & Bareck looks forward to continuing
success in these practice areas.
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