Hon. Stuart A. Nudelman, (Ret.) - ADR Systems

ADR Systems

Neutrals

Hon. Stuart A. Nudelman

Hon. Stuart A. Nudelman, (Ret.)

IllinoisNeutral Availability

Hon. Stuart A. Nudelman, (Ret.) is a preeminent mediator and arbitrator known for his creative settlements involving emotionally charged, complex multi-party matters.  He has extensive experience in resolving commercial, medical, legal, accounting and auditing malpractice, as well as nursing home, product liability, personal injury, employment and construction matters. In addition to experience garnered on the bench as a trial judge, he was often assigned cases from other court calls and judges’ calendars for settlement conferences and mediations.  As a mediator, Judge Nudelman settled the largest embezzlement case in US history in a marathon 17-hour mediation.

Types of Cases Resolved

  • Accounting Malpractice
  • Auto Liability
  • Cannabis
  • Class Action
  • Condominium Board Dispute
  • Construction
  • Construction Accidents
  • Construction Defect
  • Contract
  • Data Privacy
  • Directors & Officers (D&O)
  • Discrimination
  • Employment
  • Errors & Omissions (E&O)
  • Estates
  • Family Business
  • Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA)
  • Fiduciary Duty
  • Franchise
  • Fraud
  • Harassment
  • Insurance Coverage
  • Legal Malpractice
  • Mechanics Lien
  • Medical Malpractice
  • Multidistrict Litigation (MDL)
  • Non-Compete
  • Nursing Home
  • Partnership Dispute
  • Personal Injury
  • Premises Liability
  • Probate
  • Product Liability
  • Professional Malpractice
  • Property Damage
  • Qui Tam
  • Real Estate
  • Retaliatory Discharge
  • Securities
  • Sexual Abuse
  • Sexual Harassment
  • Subrogation
  • Trusts
  • Whistleblower
  • Wrongful Termination

ADR Experience and Qualifications

  • Since joining ADR Systems in 2006, Judge Nudelman has served as a full-time mediator, arbitrator, tri-panel chair, special master, business trustee, and consultant in motion practice, witness presentations and case review
  • 21-year judicial career in the Circuit Court of Cook County, including serving as Presiding Judge in the Second and Fourth Municipal Districts; Trial Judge in the Law Division and Commercial Calendar Call
  • 13-year legal career, including working as Supervising Attorney, Vertical Representation Unit, Office of the Public Defender; Supervising Attorney, Murder Task Force, Office of the Public Defender; Trial Attorney 1972-1985
  • Judicial Symposium on Critical Issues in Construction Defects Litigation, AEI Brookings Institute
  • Mediation Certificate, Northwestern University
  • Approved Mediator, Circuit Court of Cook County

Representative Cases

  • Auto Liability: defendant tow truck driver speeding and using cell phone failed to see Plaintiff’s vehicle in intersection causing collision and traumatic brain damage to Plaintiff
  • Bankruptcy & Fiduciary Duty: settled a multi-day remote mediation with over 40 participants involving claims of fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, as well as a bankruptcy trustee who oversaw the liquidation of numerous assets
  • Construction: defect and contract cases involving condominium associations, single-family homes and condominiums
  • Construction: defect and contract case with plaintiff seeking damages involving Chicago’s most expensive home at the time
  • Contract: international arbitration involving millions of dollars and multiple entities; complex claims of material breach of a supply agreement, breach of warranty, failure to perform, defective work and negligent misrepresentations, inter alia, regarding the construction and installation of a green energy project
  • Contract: settled a dispute involving claims that defendant violated their operating agreement and the Illinois Limited Liabilities Act by failing to permit the plaintiff to participate in meetings about the management and finances of a member managed limited liability company
  • Contract: arbitrator in matters involving corporate properties and corporate entities, fiduciary duty, unfair competition issues and patent issues as part of a tripartite panel
  • Contract: complex matter involving the question of a hospital’s obligation to treat indigent patients and what rates should be charged to uninsured patients, including application of the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act and Illinois Revenue Act
  • Contract: as a judge, held that the theory of implied indemnity will not support a third-party action where the underlying lawsuit against the third-party plaintiff is grounded in breach of contract
  • Contract: claims of engineering and architectural defects in airport design
  • Contract: dispute regarding sports conferences between a university and athletic association
  • Contract: Magnuson Moss Act case determining commercial versus private vehicle coverage in warranty cases
  • Employment: settled dispute involving claims that defendant employer retaliated and discriminated against plaintiff via termination for pretextual reasons, violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Illinois Human Rights Act
  • Estates: plaintiff claimed that trustees breached fiduciary duty by selling outstanding common stock within a trust at less than fair market value and without proper notification; matter settled
  • Directors & Officers (D&O): FDIC cases against national banking institutions; allegations of failed loans by directors and officers
  • Employment: retaliatory discharge and the whistleblower statute
  • Intellectual Property: settled dispute involving claims that defendant misappropriated proprietary information
  • Medical Malpractice: multiple parties and complex issues that involved C-section of mother, death of child, fetal monitoring strips and actions of hospital staff and medical personnel
  • Partnership Dispute: shareholders purportedly misidentified their positions in the company, falsified records and attempted to take control from majority shareholders; case settled
  • Partnership Dispute: partnership dissolution with a dispute over the pension and other retirement benefits
  • Personal Injury: matter involved municipality that hosted community event and contracted to erect large tent; tent collapsed during inclement weather, causing injuries to plaintiff’s ribs, lungs, liver, kidney and ankle when hit with tent pole; settled case
  • Personal Injury: passenger and flight attendant confrontation as related to possible security concerns
  • Real Estate: claims that defendant violated two mortgage broker agreements by failing to indemnify plaintiff against losses allegedly experienced from numerous defunct loans brokered by defendant
  • Subrogation: settled a dispute involving allegations of defendant negligence that resulted in a residential property fire and subsequent payments made by subrogating carriers to their insureds

Professional Activities and Awards

  • Former Member, Complex Litigation Committee of the Supreme Court
  • Former President, Illinois Judges Association; Board Member
  • Former Faculty, Judicial Conference, Judging in the 21st Century, a course on ethics and morals in our changing society
  • Former Judicial Mentor Training Chair, Circuit Court of Cook County
  • Former Member, Executive Committee of the Supreme Court of Illinois
  • Former Adjunct Professor of Law, Loyola University Chicago School of Law
  • Facilitator, Supreme Court Special Committee on Professionalism
  • Lifetime Achievement Award, Decalogue Society of Lawyers
  • Judge of the Year Award, American Board of Trial Advocates
  • Lifetime Achievement Award, Illinois Judges Association
  • 25th Anniversary Award, Public Interest Law Society
  • Scales of Justice Award, Rainbow/PUSH
  • Domestic Violence Service Award, LifeSpan
  • Community Court Service Award, NAACP
  • Domestic Violence Award, National Organization of Women
  • Man of the Year Award, Arab American Bar Association
  • Named in Leading Lawyers’ Top 10 for ADR

Presentations and Publications

  • Presenter, Trial Advocacy Program, Hinshaw & Culbertson
  • Presenter, Motion Practice, Commercial Litigation and Civil Practice; Pretrial and Motion Practice, Chicago Bar Association
  • Presenter, Mediation Techniques, West Suburban Bar Association
  • Presenter, “Mediating the High-Profile Case,” American Bar Association (ABA) Spring Forum on Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • Presenter, Civil Jury Trials, Northwest Bar Association
  • Presenter, numerous Continuing Legal Education (CLE) programs for ADR Systems on various topics
  • Co-Author (with Jann Johnson, Esq.), “Premediation Preparation: A Key Component to Successful Dispute Resolution,” The Brief, Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section, ABA
  • Co-Author, (with Jann Johnson, Esq.), “Realizing the Potential Cost-Savings of Arbitration: It’s in the Process,” Law Bulletin Publishing Company

Education

  • JD, Chicago-Kent College of Law
  • BS, University of Illinois, Chicago

Admissions

  • Illinois State Bar

Disclosure

I have been a practicing attorney since 1972, was elected to the Cook County Circuit Court in 1985 and went into the private practice of mediation and arbitration in 2006. Many attorneys have tried cases in my courtrooms or mediated or arbitrated a case with me.

Additionally, I have one family member working at Kirkland & Ellis, LLP in Chicago.

The disclosures listed above will not affect my neutrality in this dispute.

Faced with challenging nearly impossible dynamics,  including an uninsured,  potentially bankrupt and recalcitrant defendant, Judge Brown demonstrated a different facet, counselling litigants to see the positive side of compromising beyond their comfort zone to find catharsis in closure.

James H. Lawlor, III, Esq.Shea Law Group
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