Jeff Muskopf specializes in complex commercial and civil litigation, having represented a diverse individual and corporate client base in a wide range of civil litigation cases. Jeff is solution-oriented and strives to represent his clients in a thoughtful, efficient, and highly effective manner. In over three decades of practice, Jeff has gained substantial experience in a wide variety of substantive legal areas, as well as significant first-chair trial experience, and mediation and arbitration.
Practice Areas
Education
- Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, J.D., 1992
- Westminster College, B.A. (Political Science), 1989
Bar Admissions
- Illinois
- Missouri
- Texas
Court Admissions
- United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh and Eighth Circuits
- United States District Courts for the Southern, Central, and Northern Districts of Illinois
- United States District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Illinois
- United States District Courts for the District of Kansas
Representative Matters
- Most v. Team Industrial Services, 2024 WL 2194508 (Fort Bend County, Texas). In this case, a worker at a power plant sustained fatal steam-burn injuries. After a month-long jury trial in which Jeff served as co-trial counsel for the defendant, the jury returned a verdict in the amount of $222 million based solely on noneconomic damages. The judgment was reversed on appeal and the case was dismissed on the basis of forum non conveniens. The court of appeals further found that the damages award was not supported by the evidence.
- Constance v. Brennan, 2014 WL 251959 (St. Clair County, Illinois). This was a dispute between two former law partners arising out of the dissolution of the firm. Jeff served as first-chair trial counsel for the defendant in this five-week trial. The plaintiff sought over $10 million, and judgment was entered in the amount of $1.64 million. On appeal, the judgment was reversed and rendered in favor of Jeff’s client based on the statute of limitations.
- Brennan v. Connors (St. Clair County, Illinois). Jeff served as co-counsel for the plaintiff in this dispute between a lawyer and his client (the tennis celebrity Jimmy Connors) over their fee agreement. A decade of intensive litigation--over a dozen different trial judges, multiple interlocutory appeals, countless motion hearings and depositions--resulted in the recovery of $10.5 million by Jeff’s client.
- SBU litigation v. Union Planters Bank (Cook, Madison, St. Clair, Marion Counties, Illinois; St. Louis City, Missouri). Jeff represented the defendant in this group of over a dozen cases (including a class action) arising from the theft of structured settlement funds in which the plaintiffs claimed that the defendant breached its fiduciary duties. Plaintiffs sought over $40 million. Jeff wrote and argued a motion to dismiss, which was granted by the Circuit Court of Cook County, extinguishing a $20 million exposure (Cause No. 00L 11030).
- Union Planters Bank, N.A. v. Thompson Coburn LLP, 935 N.E.2d 998 (5th Dist. 2010). In this legal malpractice case, the jury returned a verdict of $3.65 million in favor of Jeff’s client. Jeff served as coordinating counsel for the trial proceedings, as well as trial and appellate counsel in the underlying cases.
- Davis v. American Optical, 899 N.E.2d 506 (5th Dist. 2008). This was one of many product liability lawsuits filed by over 200 coal miners in more than a dozen different counties in southern Illinois. The plaintiffs alleged that they contracted black lung disease because of defective respiratory protection devices manufactured by Jeff’s client. The willingness of the plaintiffs and several defendants to settle was frustrated by the workers' compensation liens held by the employers and by the unwillingness of one defendant to settle. Jeff engineered a settlement agreement and a resolution of the liens over the objection of the non-settling defendants. The trial and appellate courts agreed with Jeff’s client, and found that the settlements were proper and in good faith.
- Carter v. SSC Odin Operating Co., LLC, 976 N.E.2d 344 (Ill. 2012). Jeff served as trial and appellate counsel in this nursing home malpractice case in which Jeff’s client sought to enforce an arbitration agreement. After the trial and appellate courts found that the arbitration agreement was unenforceable, the Illinois Supreme Court found that the Federal Arbitration Act preempted the Illinois statute upon which the trial and appellate court decisions were based and dismissed the lawsuit.
- Trentman v. Kappel, 775 N.E.2d 1041 (5th Dist. 2002). Jeff second-chaired this medical malpractice case in which the jury entered a defense verdict in favor of Jeff’s client. Jeff also served as appellate counsel, and the appeal was dismissed because the plaintiff failed to timely file a post-trial motion, thus depriving the appellate court of jurisdiction.
