Dan K. Webb

CHICAGO - Dan K. Webb is an accomplished litigator who has tried more than 100 jury cases, including complex commercial and white collar trials. He serves as co-executive chairman of Winston & Strawn LLP at the firm's Chicago headquarters. He is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Demonstrating his versatility and his early work as the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Webb has successfully prosecuted marquee criminal matters, including the case of retired Admiral John Poindexter back in the Reagan-era Iran-Contra Affair, and, retained more recently as a special prosecutor, that of actor Jussie Smollett.

His current docket is full of high-profile cases, including his defense of Fox News as it faces a $1.6 billion defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems and his defense of Boeing Corp. in the Ethiopian Air Flight 302 crash litigation.

For Fox, which Dominion seeks to hold liable for reporting claims that it rigged its voting machines as part of a conspiracy to steal the 2020 presidential election for Donald Trump, Webb is mounting a free speech defense. "This does not appear to be a case that's going to settle -- but anything can happen," Webb said in December. "There are some very fundamental First Amendment issues here, and those haven't changed." US Dominion Inc. et al., v. Fox News Network LLC, N21C-03-257 (Del. Super. Ct., filed Dec. 16, 2021).

Dominion and Boeing are just two of Webb's innumerable clients from corporate America. Others range from Abbott Laboratories, Altria Group and American Airlines to JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., the Los Angeles Dodgers and Wells Fargo Bank. "I've spent 40 years trying cases," Webb said. Referring to his recent $105 million jury verdict in a case in which his client prevailed in Detroit, Michigan, against one of its leading employers, Ford Motor Co., he added: "This one made me proud."

Webb said the Ford case was among the more difficult of his career due to the venue -- but the outcome was among the most satisfying due to its endorsement of the jury system.

In October 2022, federal jurors found Ford guilty of violating a contract and misusing trade secrets. It awarded a longtime Ford vendor, a Texas-based maker of auto production software, $104.65 million after three weeks of trial testimony. Ford has announced an appeal. Versata Software Inc. v. Ford Motor Co., 2:15-cv-10628 (E.D. Mich., filed Feb. 19, 2015).

"This auto configuration software instructs the assembly line how to build a car, and we sued because Ford stole our trade secrets and stopped doing business with us to build its own system," Webb said.

That was straightforward enough, but the location appeared to be a quagmire for the out-of-state plaintiff. "We had to sue in Detroit, yet Ford is revered in Detroit," Webb said. "I could not find a single juror without strong ties to Ford, and I thought that would be a big disadvantage."

Yet, following Webb's strong opening statement and a detailed presentation of the facts, the jurors saw things his way. "They deliberated for only a day. They put aside their feelings and biases, and this case and its result became the poster child for my belief in the jury system," Webb said.