News

Philip S. Beck, President George W. Bush's lead attorney during the historic Florida recount case and founding partner of the Chicago firm Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott, delivered a lecture as part of this year's Pope & John Lecture Series on Professionalism at the Law School.

As President Bush's lead attorney in the Florida recount case, Beck cross-examined all of former Vice President Gore's witnesses and directly examined President Bush's expert witnesses. After the Florida Supreme Court overturned a trial judge's ruling in Bush's favor, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and ended the recount.

Named one of the top ten litigators in Illinois by the National Law Journal, Beck has won more major defense verdicts than any other lawyer in the country. He was recently retained by the U.S. Department of Justice to be the lead trial attorney in the remand proceedings in the Microsoft antitrust case.

Beck regularly argues in high-stakes litigation, representing some of the largest companies in the world, including DuPont, Bayer, Phillips Petroleum, and General Motors. He represented Arthur Andersen in its contract dispute over computer consulting services and the Canadian Government in their tobacco suit against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco.

The Pope & John Lecture Series on Professionalism was established in 1991 by the Chicago firm Pope & John Ltd. and is part of the Law School's program on Advocacy and Professionalism, directed by Professor Steven Lubet. Past programs have included among others Albert Louis Sachs, Judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, who in 1998 delivered a lecture titled "From Racist State to Constitutional Democracy; the South African Experience;" and Christine Lagarde, Chairman of Baker & McKenzie, who in 2000 delivered a lecture titled "The Multidisciplinary Lawyer: European Perspective."