Firm: Sudekum, Cassidy & Shulruff, chtd.
Location: Chicago - IL
-
20 North Clark Street. Suite 2450
Chicago, IL 60602
USA
- Tel : (312) 803-6250
- Fax : (312)803-6260
- Email : fjs@scslegal.com
Frederick (“Rick”) Sudekum is the Senior Partner at Sudekum, Cassidy & Shulruff, Chtd. For more than 30 years he has defended insurance companies and their insureds in a myriad of settings including lawsuit involving extra-contractual damages, coverage analysis, construction disputes and fires and explosions.
Before founding the Firm in 1993, Mr. Sudekum was a partner at a major Chicago law firm where he analyzed and defended first-party insurance claims and third-party cases involving built-up medical specials and loss of income.
Mr. Sudekum has conducted hundreds of depositions and examinations under oath, provided countless coverage opinions and successfully tried numerous insurance fraud cases to verdict. He also regularly handles appeals resulting from cases the Firm resolves at trial. As a result of his vast experience, he is the recognized leader in Chicago in defending extra-contractual damages and construction disputes.
Mr. Sudekum is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1977 from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. He studied law at the Saint Louis University School of Law and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1980, at which time he gained admittance to practice before the Missouri state courts. He served as the law clerk of James A. Pudlowski of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Easter District. He was admitted to practice before the state courts of Illinois in 1981.
Rick also served as the editor for the second edition of the Indiana and Illinois “Annotations to the Homeowners’ Policy” published under the American Bar Association and was appointed by the attorney general of Illinois to write a section of the “Attorney General Arson Training and Prosecution Manual.”
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
- Insurance Defense
- Construction Litigation
- Commercial Litigation
- Third Party Liability
- Appeals
BAR ADMISSIONS
- Supreme Court of Illinois
- United States Supreme Court
- Seventh Circuit of the United States Courts of Appeal
- Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
HONORS AND AWARDS
- A-V rated by Martindale Hubbell for in excess of 20 years
- Premier Litigation Lawyers Exclusive Featured Attorney for Chicago 2019-2020
- Selected to Super Lawyers for numerous years
- America’s Top 100 Civil Defense Litigators
Sudekum, Cassidy & Shulruff, chtd.
For more than 25 years Sudekum Cassidy and Shulruff has counseled clients on coverage issues; contract disputes; construction disputes; catastrophic property losses, including fire and arson claims and personal injury matters.
The Firm specializes in the following:
- Coverage Issues.
- First-Party Property and Catastrophic Claims: The Firm focuses on claims involving weather-related losses, including wind and hail, tornado, earth-movement, first, arson, construction defect, theft, homeowner losses, including water-relate damage.
- Construction Disputes: The Firm defense general contractors and subcontractors in a variety of disputes and litigation arising from construction projects.
- Third-Party Liability/Bodily Injury: Our Firm is a leader in the Midwest in defending bodily injury claims and clinic investigation.
- Extra-contractual Damages/Bad Faith: The Firm is accomplished at defending insurers sued for damages exceeding the policy limits. Theories of recovery include 215 ILCS 5/155.
- Commercial Litigation: The Firm represents landlord, property owners, contractors and business owners.
- Replevin: The Firm specializes in suing towing companies to recover improperly impounded vehicles.
- Construction Defects: The Firm represents general contractors, sub-contractors and building professionals sued for claims alleging construction and installation defects.