knew Kevin could help us navigate the
treacherous waters we were in.”
Forde was also instrumental when the
company became public, and later was called
in to work on the case with his son, Michael,
at Mayer Brown when CBOT merged in 2007
with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in a
$12 billion deal. “He was part of a group of
lawyers who helped restore the CBOT as a
world-class financial institution and helped us
work through a maze of legal issues,” Carey
says. “Without Kevin on that team, things
would not have gone so smoothly.”
In 2010, Michael Forde invited his father
to work with Mayer Brown in representing
then-mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel,
who had been renting out his Chicago
home while working as chief of staff for
President Barack Obama in Washington,
D.C. The firm was assembling a team to
handle appeals on the issue of Emanuel’s
eligibility to run.
“It was great fun, because I got to work
with my son. I took the case, even though
I told them I knew nothing about election
law,” Forde says. “But that’s not unusual
for us; we always get into things we have to
learn about.”
He also got to become acquainted with
Emanuel. “Meeting him and getting to know
him was a very positive part of it,” Forde
says. “It was fun to work with him because
I found he is very, very smart; gets right
to the heart of things; and he’s very, very
passionate about everything he does and
has incredible energy. Just to work with him
was an experience for me. That part of it
was worth all the anguish and late nights.”
The legal team sought an accelerated
hearing because of the election filing
deadline. The Illinois Supreme Court
decided the case unanimously, based on
Forde’s briefs, without oral arguments. “I
was sure we were right. But obviously, you
never know what a court would do with it,”
Forde says.
“He’s at a phase in his life when many
people his age begin slowing down,” says
Michael. “He’s in the office from 7 to 7.
When he’s working on a case, he does not
like to lose. He’s incredibly competitive. I
can say this because I just played against
him on the golf course. He doesn’t like to
lose on the golf course or in court.”
Forde devotes much of his free time to
heading up the Wendy Will Case Cancer
Fund, named after Judge Will’s daughter who
died of cancer at 39. The foundation provides
seed money for young, innovative researchers
with strong ideas but no track record. Forde
learned that getting funding from the
National Institutes of Health or the American
Cancer Society was virtually impossible for
newcomers without previous funding.
Making sure smart people have the money
and independence to do their work is in line
with Forde’s longstanding commitment to
ensure the best judges stay on the bench and
are properly compensated.
“I feel so passionate about that issue.
The judiciary is so important, and in my
experience working closely with judges
over the years, I know that our whole
democracy is based on a competent
judicial system,” Forde says. “To keep
good judges, you need adequate
compensation and tenure.”
So why hasn’t Forde become a judge? “The
right opportunity never came at the right
time,” he says. “But I haven’t given up.”
