Partner
P: 312-578-7635 | bnelligan@pretzel-stouffer.com
Brendan Nelligan is the attorney that other lawyers, accountants, and business professionals call when faced with litigation or claims for professional liability.
Brendan Nelligan is the attorney that other lawyers, accountants and business professionals call when faced with litigation or claims for professional liability. Brendan often obtains outright dismissals in cases filed against attorneys, accountants, and insurance professionals, including recent dismissals of a $40 million malpractice claim against a local accounting firm and a $10 million malpractice claim against a local attorney. He has broad experience successfully representing clients at all stages of litigation in both the federal and state courts.
In addition to his professional liability defense practice, Brendan represents employers against wrongful discharge claims, as well as claims based upon allegations of race, sex, national origin, disability, pregnancy, and sexual orientation discrimination. He has defended employers before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Illinois Human Rights Commission, and the Illinois Labor Relations Board, and has significant experience in connection with investigations conducted by the Illinois Department of Human Rights, National Labor Relations Board and the U.S. Department of Labor (OSHA). Brendan has defended businesses and premises owners in connection with accessibility claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act as well.
Because Brendan maintains an active appellate practice, he remains actively involved with his cases at each stage of the litigation until its ultimate conclusion. He has advocated on behalf of clients before the United States Supreme Court, the Illinois Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit as well as several districts of the Illinois Appellate Court.
Brendan’s litigation experience also includes handling complex, multiparty commercial disputes on behalf of major telecommunications providers in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and he has represented corporate officers and directors against claims that they breached their fiduciary duties.
Before joining Pretzel & Stouffer, Chartered, Brendan was a prosecutor with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office from 1998 to 2003, where he tried numerous bench and jury trials. Brendan was also a law clerk for Justice Michael J. Gallagher of the Illinois Appellate Court.
Following the submission of an amicus brief prepared by Pretzel & Stouffer partners, Richard Waris, Matthew Egan, and Brendan Nelligan, on behalf of the Independent Insurance Agents of Illinois, the Illinois Supreme Court recently entered a very important victory for insurance producers and insurers in American Family Mut. Ins. Co. v. Krop, 2018 IL 122556. ...
July 2019 | Firm News
Brendan Nelligan and Matthew J. Egan once again prevailed in the Illinois Appellate Court on behalf of the firm’s clients, an accountant and his firm who were sued for professional malpractice arising from alleged advice they provided certain clients which purportedly resulted in a loss suffered by the clients in a subsequent collections action. The circuit court had ...
December 2018 | Firm News
Pretzel & Stouffer partners Matthew J. Egan and Brendan Nelligan recently prevailed in the Illinois Appellate Court on behalf of the firm’s client, an attorney who had been sued for legal malpractice arising from his representation of a client in litigation which challenged the plaintiff’s performance of fiduciary duties as the trustee of a trust. See, 2018 IL App ...
September 2018 | Firm News
Pretzel & Stouffer partners Matthew J. Egan and Brendan Nelligan once again prevailed in the Illinois Appellate Court on behalf of the firm’s client, an attorney who was sued for legal malpractice arising from his representation of certain clients in multiple mortgage foreclosure cases. The circuit court had dismissed the plaintiffs’ complaint on the grounds that it did not ...
September 2018 | Firm News
Richard Waris, Matthew Egan, and Brendan Nelligan recently filed an amicus brief with the Illinois Supreme Court on behalf of the Independent Insurance Agents of Illinois relating to a case of statewide importance to insurance producers. The Supreme Court’s ruling could have a major impact on two statutes that were drafted by the IIA with the help of ...
April 2018 | Firm News
Matthew J. Egan and Brendan J. Nelligan successfully defended their client, an attorney for union-sponsored benefit funds, in the United States District Court in Chicago against a claim that the attorney tortiously interfered with the plaintiff’s contract with another company when the attorney notified the other company of the funds’ claim that the plaintiff had ...
April 2022
Richard M. Waris, Brendan J. Nelligan, and Quinn P. Donnelly obtained the dismissal with prejudice of a complaint filed against an insurance broker alleging that the broker was negligent in procuring coverage and negligently misrepresented the scope of the coverage procured, when the insured was denied coverage for economic losses they allegedly sustained as a ...
June 2021
Pretzel & Stouffer partners Matthew Egan and Brendan Nelligan prevailed in the Illinois Supreme Court on behalf of the firm’s clients, an attorney and his employer, a union, in a legal malpractice case arising from the attorney’s representation of a police officer in a grievance arbitration proceeding at which the plaintiff, a union member, challenged ...
March 2021
Pretzel & Stouffer partners Matthew J. Egan and Brendan Nelligan recently prevailed in federal court on behalf of the firm’s client, an attorney, who had been appointed by a state circuit court judge to serve as the child’s representative in a contentious domestic relations case to which the plaintiff was a party. The plaintiff, who was also the petitioner ...
March 2021
Pretzel & Stouffer partners Brendan Nelligan and Matthew J. Egan prevailed in the Illinois Supreme Court on behalf of the firm’s clients, an attorney and his employer, a union, in a legal malpractice case arising from their representation of a police officer in a grievance arbitration proceeding at which the plaintiff, a union member, challenged the termination ...
November 2020