Patrick Frye is an associate in the Litigation Department of Edwards Wildman. He practices in a variety of areas of commercial litigation, including insurance and reinsurance antitrust and coverage defense, tax, and securities. Patrick regularly advises clients on litigation strategy and appears in arbitration and in both state and federal judicial proceedings.
Notable Experience
ˇ Served as the lead - and only - counsel in a jury trial in the Circuit Court of Cook County on behalf of a plaintiff car purchaser against a dealership for breach of warranty. As second chair, won a verdict in the Circuit Court of Cook County in favor of a car manufacturer accused of breaching its warranties.
ˇ Represented a reinsurer in a three-week evidentiary hearing in the Southern District of New York concerning the redomestication of a captive insurance company from Massachusetts to Bermuda.
ˇ Won summary judgment in the Circuit Court of Cook County in favor of a bank where the plaintiff premised the bank's supposed liability on the theory that the bank was in partnership with its borrower.
ˇ Won dismissal in favor of a Fortune 100 company in the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas. Represented the client in actions simultaneously pending in state and federal court.
ˇ Won dismissal in the Circuit Court of Cook County of a lawsuit brought by an Illinois resident for forum non conveniens to the benefit of a Texas-based client.
ˇ Represented a Fortune 100 taxpayer in the Circuit Court of Cook County in a Protest Monies Act case against the Illinois Department of Revenue. Defeated the Department's motion to dismiss and won summary judgment in the client's favor.
ˇ In private arbitration, represented an insurer that denied indemnity coverage to a British investment firm accused of manipulating the split capital investment trusts securities sector after extensive investigation by the United Kingdom's Financial Services Authority.
ˇ Won an appeal in the Appellate Court of Illinois, Third District, on behalf of an investment bank; the Appellate Court affirmed the trial court's stay of the plaintiff investor's lawsuit.
ˇ Represented an investment bank in a putative class action pending in Indiana state court. The trial court denied the plaintiff's motion to certify the class.
ˇ Represented clients in multiple mediations conducted by magistrate judges in the Northern District of Illinois.
Recent Speaking Engagements and Publications
ˇ Co-author, "Winning at the Gate: A Practical Approach to Pleading or Attacking Antitrust Claims in the Post Twombly/Iqbal World," Illinois State Bar Association Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Newsletter, April 2011.
ˇ Author, "Access to Insureds' Privileged Communications via Cooperation Clauses," American Bar Association's The Brief, Volume 39, Number 3, Spring 2010
ˇ Author, "Addison Insurance Co. v. Fay: The Burden of Proving the Number of Occurrences," Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel Quarterly, Volume 59, Summer 2009
ˇ Author, "Stopping Out-of-State Litigation Against an Insurer Subject to Insolvency Proceedings," National Association of Insurance Commissioners' Journal of Insurance Regulation, Volume 23, Number 3, Spring 2009
News and Publications
February 2012, Client Advisory - Federal Court of Appeals Affirms Statutory Bad-Faith Liability Imposed on Insurer Despite Jury's Refusal to Find Liability for Common-Law Bad Faith