Christopher Hennessy

Chris focuses his practice on litigation where he has counseled and assisted businesses across numerous industries. Chris’s proactive approach when working with businesses helps to keep them out of the courtroom when possible but at the same time, prepares them for the successful prosecution of their rights or defense of their conduct. Chris also assists his clients with risk management and conflict avoidance and works with them to understand their businesses from the inside-out. This allows him to assist those businesses throughout the gamut of their operations; including contract drafting and negotiations, employment and non-disclosure agreements, insurance and risk management needs, and litigation strategies. Chris’s litigation and trial experience informs his counseling strategies, while at the same time enabling him to fully protect the rights of his clients through verdict, if necessary. In addition to his extensive litigation experience across a number of industries, Chris is an accomplished author, contributing two chapters of a book on Illinois construction law (Claims Against Construction Participants and Delay Claims and Damages). Chris has written articles published by Law360, Bloomberg, and the American Bar Association. He has given presentations to various audiences in the construction industry, discussing purchasing and interpretation of liability insurance for contractors; the insurance industry, teaching claims personnel about early intervention, claim investigation, and litigation; and for design professionals, on issues they uniquely face in the construction context. Chris has also published in the area of employment litigation and is the chair for ABA Section of Litigation’s Employment & Labor Relations Law Newsletter. Outside the firm, Chris is the past-president of the board of directors of the Chicago Area Runners Association and a past board president of the Peoples’ Music School. Chris graduated from Northern Illinois University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science in communications and received his law degree, cum laude, from The John Marshall Law School in 1996. Chris is licensed to practice before the state and federal courts in Illinois and Arizona, as well as before the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.