Rebecca Weinstein Bacon
Illinois
Bartlit Beck LLP
Courthouse Place
54 West Hubbard Street
Chicago, IL 60654
Tel: 312.494.4458
Email:
rweinstein.bacon@bartlitbeck.com
Web:
www.bartlit-beck.com
Rebecca Weinstein Bacon tries and litigates complex cases for Fortune 500 clients. With over 20 years of experience, Rebecca has represented companies in some of their most important cases on a variety of claims: pharmaceutical products liability claims, antitrust cases, consumer class actions, and commercial disputes. She is an expert legal strategist with extensive trial experience, as well as the business sophistication and acumen to know when and how to obtain the best possible settlement for her clients.
Rebecca tried one of the only consumer class action cases to go to trial, which resulted in a defense verdict for Whirlpool. She also tried one of the only “pattern or practice” employment discrimination cases to go to trial. It was brought by the EEOC against Texas Roadhouse. She is currently leading the team defending FedEx Ground against sweeping claims by the EEOC relating to their treatment of deaf package handlers. She serves on trial teams for bellwether cases in pharmaceutical companies’ most important mass torts. She has tried and is slated to try pelvic mesh trials for Johnson and Johnson in 2020.
Her representation of Bayer in the WeightSmart litigation led to one of the seminal class action decisions related to ascertainability. In this case, her leadership resulted in appellate review of the only certified state class which she argued before the Third Circuit. The Third Circuit reversed the class certification decision and denied plaintiffs’ request for rehearing.
Rebecca is a nationally recognized attorney. She is Chambers ranked, named one of Crain’s Most Influential Women Lawyers in Chicago, a Benchmark Litigation National and Local Litigation Star, one of the Top 250 Women in Litigation for many years, and on the Lawdragon 500. Rebecca served as an adjunct professor at Northwestern University School of Law for three years where she taught a class on trial advocacy, and she has published and presented on a wide range of topics related to high-stakes litigation.
- Recognized as Top 50: Illinois Women Super Lawyers
- Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America
- Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America
- Recognized in Benchmark Litigation:
- Top 100 Trial Lawyer
- National Practice Area Star
- Top 250 Women in Litigation
- Local Litigation Star
- Recognized as one of Crain’s Most Influential Women Lawyers in Chicago 2017
- Recognized as an Illinois Super Lawyer 2013-2020
- Nominated to Who’s Who Legal, Thought Leaders: USA 2023
- Nominated to Who’s Who Legal, Product Liability Defence 2022-2023
- Nominated to Who’s Who Legal, Commercial Litigation 2022
- LMG Life Sciences Star
- Recognized as a Notable Women in Law by Crain’s Chicago Business 2022
- Be the Expert Series: Gearing up for Trial-ABA Webinar Section of Antitrust Law, Civil Practice and Procedure and Trial Practice Committees (March 1, 2018)
- Plaintiffs Playbook Reprised: How to Best Deal with Past Transgressions and Other Accusations-DRI Drug & Medical Device Conference (May 2017)
- Global Women’s Leadership Roundtable on Confidence-Tiara Coaching (May 2016)
- Trying the class action: Opportunities and challenges for plaintiffs and defendants: Should strategies between class certification briefings and trial be different?-LSI Twelfth Annual Conference on Class Actions (Seattle, WA May 2016)
- Current State of the Law on Ascertainability and Standing-Consumer Class Action Conference (Orange County, CA Jan. 2016)
- Client Expectations and How To Assess Value-IADC/FDCC Joint Law Firm Management Conference (Chicago, IL May 2013)
- Spinning a Yarn: Trial Theme, Selection, and Persuasion in Jury Trials-DRI Products Liability Conference (National Harbor, MD April 2013)
- Showdown: Products Masters Demonstrate Their Closing Styles (Jury Consultant and Mock Jurors Evaluated Ms. Bacon and two other attorneys perform closing arguments)-DRI Products Liability Conference (National Harbor, MD April 2013)
- Analyzing Products Liability Trends Outside the U.S.-Coordinating Litigation Efforts Across International Jurisdictions-17th Annual DRI Drug and Medical Device Litigation Conference (December 2012)
- Class Certification Trends and Motions to Dismiss Class Allegations-Second Annual LSI Conference on Litigating Class Actions (Chicago, IL December 2012)
- International Discovery: Understanding and Dealing with Foreign Discovery Requirements-ALI ABA Webinar (November 2012)
- Tech Savvy Jurors in a High Tech World: Strategies for Addressing Juror Misconduct-20th Annual IADC Meeting (Asheville, NC July 2012)
- How the Explosion of Social Media, Cloud Computing and New Forms of DTC Marketing are Changing the Products Liability Playing Field-15th Anniversary Drug and Medical Device Litigation Conference (December 2011)
- Featured in “Facing The Alternative: How Does A Flat Fee System Really Work?”-ABA Journal (March 1, 2011)
- Social Media: The Impact on Pharma-Drug and Medical Device Litigation Conference of the American Conference Institute (New York, NY December 2010)
- Handling Trial Themes in Difficult Cases-Women in Products Liability Conference (Chicago, IL 2009)
- Disappearing Act: When a dot-com fails, creditors may find they have few legal protections if insiders try to loot the company’s virtual assets-The Daily Deal (June 6, 2000)
- Personal Jurisdiction and the Internet-New York Law Journal (July 20, 1998) (with Dale M. Cendali)
- Business on the Web: Personal Jurisdiction and the Internet, The Multimedia and Web Strategist (July and August, 1998) (with Dale M. Cendali)
“Rebecca Weinstein Bacon is a noted trial lawyer who regularly handles a wide range of civil disputes, with recent experience representing employers and higher education sector clients.”