Eli J. Kay-Oliphant

Eli J. Kay-Oliphant has litigated the most complex of issues for almost two decades. He has represented defendants and plaintiffs in state and federal courts throughout the country, as well as in arbitrations and mediations.

Mr. Kay-Oliphant’s practice focuses on complicated and “bet the company” contractual matters, commercial fraud, and other business torts.  He has extensive experience with mass actions and has litigated class actions in both state and federal court. He has worked on matters related to the financial services, aviation, energy, health care and pharmaceuticals, online technology, and media industries. He has litigated regarding airline preemption, partnership and member disputes, business torts, sophisticated financial products such as credit default swaps, Ponzi schemes, and residential mortgage-backed securities, antitrust, false and misleading media stories, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, online financial products and transactions, social media, complex software and technology, the Federal Anti-Terrorism Act, real estate, and data privacy and security matters.

Mr. Kay-Oliphant has a wide array of experience in the state and federal courts in Illinois, as well as in the federal courts in New York and Washington, D.C. He has handled all phases of litigation, from pre-complaint negotiations, drafting, defending, and attacking complaints at the pleading stage, managing and litigating discovery, attacking and defending experts, summary judgment, settlement negotiations, and all the way through bench or jury trial.  He has appellate experience before the Illinois Court of Appeals and the Illinois Supreme Court as well as in Federal Courts of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court, and recently won appeals before both the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the Illinois Court of Appeals.  Mr. Kay-Oliphant also has extensive experience in arbitrations before both JAMS and AAA.

Before joining Sparacino PLLC, Mr. Kay-Oliphant was a partner at Massey & Gail LLP, an associate at the international law firms Latham & Watkins in New York City and O’Melveny & Myers in Washington, D.C., and a clerk for the Honorable W. Eugene Davis of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.  In law school, Mr. Kay-Oliphant was the Editor-in-Chief of the Emory Law Journal.

Mr. Kay-Oliphant’s representations include:

• Successfully secured a settlement for the parents of Seth Rich in their lawsuit alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other claims, against Fox News in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.  Joel Rich and Mary Rich v. Fox News Network LLC, et al., 18-cv-02223 (S.D.N.Y.).
• Successfully prosecuted, as first chair, an Illinois business’s claims against its former counsel.  Won a two-week jury trial in Illinois State Court, and successfully defended appeals to the Illinois Court of Appeals and the Illinois Supreme Court.
• Successfully defended, as first chair, Southwest Airlines against a consumer class action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Negotiated a favorable settlement as between Southwest, the class, and objectors, and then successfully defended the settlement on appeal to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Successfully defended, as first chair, Southwest Airlines against another consumer class action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.  Won dismissal of all claims, with prejudice, at the pleading stage, and then successfully defended that dismissal on appeal to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Successfully defended, as first chair, a major social media company against claims in JAMS arbitration.
• Successfully prosecuted, as first chair, claims regarding violations of the Illinois Open Meetings Act by the Illinois Commerce Commission on behalf of an energy company and an Illinois non-profit company.  Negotiated a favorable settlement which included payment of clients’ attorneys’ fees.
• Successfully defended, as first chair, a consumer-interest group in a complex discovery dispute related to a widely-reported case regarding internet-safety, intellectual property, and piracy issues before the United States District Courts for the District of Columbia and the Southern District of Mississippi.
• Successfully defended an international airline in Illinois state court against a consumer class action. Achieved full dismissal based on federal preemption under the Montreal Convention. 
• Successfully prosecuted breach-of-contract and conversion claims as first chair on behalf of a major financial institution, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Achieved a favorable settlement on the eve of trial after winning summary judgment on defendant’s liability.
• Successfully defended breach-of-contract and property tort claims, on behalf of a major financial institution, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Won summary judgment on all claims, ending the lawsuit.
• Secured an $8M+ arbitration award in favor of a private equity firm in its breach-of-contract claim with regard to the sale of a healthcare company.
• Represented an exclusive distributor in bet-the-company litigation against its sole manufacturer in both Illinois state court and in the United States District Courts for the Northern District of Illinois and the Southern District of New York. Achieved a favorable settlement for the client.

You are advised that not all client results are included and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.