Thomas J. Boodell, Jr.

Managing Member Emeritus  

During a distinguished and varied legal career spanning over 50 years, Thomas J. Boodell, Jr., Managing Member Emeritus, focused on international business, civil rights, and anti-trust issues. Tom’s work on behalf of his clients, including individuals, businesses, and community organizations, has been recognized for its and his dedication to the highest principles of the legal profession, the communities he served, and his understanding of the role of law in American society.

After graduating from Princeton University, Tom served three years as an officer and Russian Linguist in the U.S. Navy, two of those years stationed in Japan. Upon earning his law degree at Harvard Law School in 1964, he did both litigation and corporate work, including representation of both public and private companies in acquisitions, mergers, and day-to-day corporate document drafting and counseling. He represented community organizations and individuals in a major class action civil rights housing litigation in Chicago (cases dubbed the Contract Buyers League cases and which can be read about in numerous papers and books, including Beryl Satter’s Family Properties) and acted as court appointed Trustee in distribution of major anti-trust settlement funds (Folding Carton Antitrust Litigation, Glass Container Antitrust Litigation).

In the middle years of his practice he joined a large law firm and developed an international corporate practice primarily in Asia. In 1985 he was invited to participate in the Japan Study Program for International Executives, a program of lectures and field studies in Japanese management and industry in Tokyo, Japan. In 1987 he was the only Chicago lawyer to join the Inter Pacific Bar Association at its founding meeting in Tokyo, Japan. By 1989 he had developed an international corporate and litigation practice and was asked by a larger and growing Chicago firm to join its firm and head its International Practice.

Later in his career, Tom left large firm practice in 2002 and joined with Al Domanskis to form Boodell & Domanskis, LLC.  At Boodell & Domanskis, Tom helped instill the firm’s core values of partnering with clients to recognize risks, avoid pitfalls, and take advantage of opportunities while serving our clients with empathy, skill, and honesty and continued to be a prominent member of the Chicago legal community.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• For over 40 years, Tom received the AV Preeminent Rating from Martindale Hubbell/LexisNexis, the attorney’s highest possible professional rating, earned through a rigorous peer review process.
• One of the Lead Attorneys in Contract Buyers League Litigation, a major class action housing discrimination lawsuit in Chicago, IL.
• One of the Lead Attorneys in distributions of major class action settlement funds, namely Folding Carton Antitrust Litigation and Glass Container Antitrust Litigation in the United States Federal District Court in Chicago, IL.
• In 1970, Tom wrote and delivered a Law Day speech before the Kane County Bar Association in Joliet, Illinois titled, Law–Bridge to Justice, which won the Judge Edward R. Finch Law Day Speech Award from the American Bar Association.
• In 2014, Tom was one of the recipients of the Inaugural Legacy Circle Award from the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law.

ACTIVITIES & ASSOCIATIONS

• Tom is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and has been a member of the American Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association, and the Bar Association of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Tom served as a Board Member of the Japan America Society of Chicago, is a past president of the Harvard Law Society of Illinois, was a Trustee of the Wendy Will Case Cancer Fund in Chicago and a Trustee of the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago where he served on the Board of Trustees for twelve years and now is designated as a Life Trustee.
• Tom spoke and participated in panels at international legal symposiums, and spoke at meetings of the Inter-Pacific, the American, and the Chicago Bar Associations.
• From 1968 to 1971 Tom was a Fellow of the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs in Chicago.
• In the 1970s and 80s, Tom served on the Board of Directors of the Law in American Society Foundation which published materials about the law and U.S. Supreme Court cases for use in public and private grade and high schools in the United States.
• Until recently, Tom was a long-time Board Member of the Industrial Areas Foundation, based in Chicago, which does community organizing throughout the United States and in countries in Europe.
• Tom was a member of the Catholic Jewish Dialogue Group in Chicago, a member of the Tripartite Dialogue between Catholics, Jews and Muslims at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and a Member of the Visiting Committee of the Divinity School at the University of Chicago.

REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS

• One of the Lead Attorneys in distributions of major class action settlement funds, namely, Folding Carton Antitrust Litigation and Glass Container Antitrust Litigation in the United States Federal District Court in Chicago, IL.
• One of the Lead Attorneys in Contract Buyers League Litigation, a major class action housing discrimination lawsuit in Chicago, IL.
• Trial matters in real estate, business loans, and general corporate matters in State and Federal Courts, primarily in Illinois and other Midwest jurisdictions.
• Represented primarily U.S. corporations in their business activities in Illinois and other parts of the U.S., and in Mexico, and Asia.
• Tom was appointed by U.S. Federal District Court Judge Joan B. Gottschall, in Chicago, to arbitrate a dispute concerning irreconcilable difference between two litigants in her courtroom. After several hearings, the case was resolved.