Chuck Bergen represents an array of sophisticated clients in their most complex and financially significant cases, helping them achieve their objectives through litigation, arbitration and mediation.
Clients regularly turn to Chuck in emerging areas of the law, where there may be a novel or unique set of facts and little or no case law precedent. Time and again, he masters the issues, develops winning legal theories and takes matters to court on behalf of his clients. He has delivered precedent-setting successes in areas as disparate as database privacy law, securities law, sovereign immunity, antitrust, insurance law and defamation.
Chuck’s practice also includes complex contract actions, allegations of fraud and breach of fiduciary duties and intellectual property matters. Although he tends to represent defendants, as plaintiff or counter-plaintiff, he has won multiple judgments in excess of $50 million and tried to verdict cases ranked on the annual Top 100 verdicts list.
Clients represented include well-known companies such as American Express, Redbox, British Airways, First Chicago, Wells Fargo, Hanover Direct, Segway, Inc., Allianz Insurance, Republic Tobacco and the National Hockey League Players’ Association. He also represents a variety of private equity, financial, trading and other nonpublic entities in complex litigation.
As member of the Trial Bar of the Northern District of Illinois for over 30 years, Chuck has tried cases lasting over three months and others lasting only a day. He has briefed and argued dozens of appeals in federal and state courts, including the Sixth and Seventh Circuits and the state courts of California, Texas, Michigan and Illinois. He is admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court.
Over the past 20 years, Chuck has been selected by peers as a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, a Member of the Leading Lawyers’ Network, an Illinois Super Lawyer® and as one of Chicago’s Best Lawyers® for commercial litigation. In 2015, he was appointed Visiting Professor at Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania, where he taught “American Business Litigation.” He taught an updated version of the course in 2017 as Visiting Professor at Turiba University in Riga, Latvia.
Currently, Chuck also serves as president of the Harvard Club of Chicago, the oldest continuously operating Harvard Club in the United States.
Teaching
- Visiting Professor, “American Business Litigation,” Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania (2015)
Honors and Awards
- Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America
- Selected, Best Lawyers®, Commercial Litigation
- Member of the Leading Lawyer’s Network
- Illinois SuperLawyers®