NEWS & INSIGHTS

Chicago—Sidley Austin is pleased to announce that Richard O’Malley, a partner in the firm’s Chicago office, has received the Award for Excellence In Pro Bono Service from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the Federal Bar Association.

Mr. O’Malley, who serves as Sidley’s Chicago pro bono chair, shared the honor with Richard Wheelock of the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago for securing declaratory and injunctive relief on behalf of a group of low-income families who challenged the Chicago Housing Authority’s plans for redevelopment of the Cabrini-Green housing project (Cabrini-Green Local Advisory Council, et al. v. Chicago Housing Authority, et al., No. 04 C 3792).

The award was presented at the 13th Annual Excellence in Pro Bono and Public Interest Service Award Ceremony on Friday, May 18, at the Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse. About two dozen awards were presented to area attorneys for their contributions to helping people most in need of assistance before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

“We are proud of Dick’s accomplishments in this case and his passionate dedication to pro bono service,” said Thomas A. Cole, Co-Chair of the Firm’s Executive Committee. “He provides a shining example of how strongly we feel about our responsibility as a profession to provide legal representation to those who otherwise cannot afford counsel.”

Mr. O’Malley’s practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, principally in the intellectual property and class action areas. He has represented a number of companies in a wide range of industries including computer software and pharmaceutical companies.

Sidley’s pro bono policy strongly urges all lawyers to devote a significant amount of time to pro bono matters. In 2011, Sidley lawyers, legal assistants and staff devoted nearly 100,000 hours to pro bono projects.

Sidley Austin LLP is one of the world’s premier full-service law firms, with approximately 1700 lawyers practicing in 18 U.S. and international cities, including Beijing, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo. This year, Sidley celebrates 30 years in Asia. Repeating its performance in the inaugural 2010 survey, Sidley received the most first-tier national rankings of any U.S. law firm in the 2011/12 U.S.News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” survey. Sidley was also named the U.S.News – Best Lawyers “Law Firm of the Year” in both Corporate Law and Securities Regulation in the 2011/12 survey (the first year of such designations). BTI, a Boston-based research and consulting firm, has named Sidley as one of only three firms to have been in the top ten of the BTI Client Service rankings every year since the inception of those rankings in 2001, and as number one in three of those years.

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