Dan Webb

Dan Webb is a partner in the litigation department, serves as firm co-chairman, and is a member of the Executive Committee at Winston & Strawn. His trial practice concentrates in the areas of major commercial, civil, regulatory, and white-collar criminal cases. Mr. Webb has tried more than 100 jury cases, including numerous successful complex commercial and white-collar criminal trials, representing, on several occasions, large corporations in jury trials lasting two months or longer. Mr. Webb joined Winston & Strawn in 1985 as a partner, after serving as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Mr. Webb has spent his entire professional life as a courtroom trial attorney and litigator. He received international attention for his successful prosecution of retired Admiral John Poindexter in the Iran-Contra affair. As the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, he spearheaded the “Operation Greylord” investigations into judicial corruption in Cook County, Ill. He received national attention for his work as lead trial counsel for General Electric, successfully defending it against criminal price-fixing allegations related to industrial diamonds, as well as for his representations of Microsoft Corp. in its antitrust litigation, Philip Morris in its tobacco-related litigation, and Verizon in obtaining a $58 million verdict in a patent litigation matter. Moreover, a team of Winston attorneys, led by Dan Webb, conducted an internal investigation at the New York Stock Exchange related to the compensation of its former Chairman and CEO, Richard A. Grasso. Following Winston’s investigation, summarized in what is now known as the “Webb Report,” the New York Attorney General’s Office sued Grasso for the return of more than $120 million in compensation. Other recent successes for clients in securities matters include obtaining favorable settlements for Ernst & Young in a securities class action brought by stockholders of HealthSouth Corporation and for Cisco Systems in a securities class action brought by the Plumbers & Pipefitters National Pension Fund, and obtaining summary judgment for Scientific-Atlantic in a securities fraud class action. On the antitrust front, Mr. Webb successfully represented Wyeth (Pfizer) against an antitrust class action relating to its patented potassium chloride product K-Dur®, C.R. Bard against claims of anti-competitive conduct relating to sales contracts with group purchasing organizations for catheters, and Monsanto against the antitrust claims brought by competitor DuPont relating to Monsanto’s patented Roundup Ready® weed killer. As for other class action experience, one of Mr. Webb’s most significant cases was for Philip Morris. He served as lead counsel in Engle, et al. v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, et al.,the first — and to date, only — class action brought by cigarette smokers for punitive damages to be tried to verdict. He also served as chief trial counsel for another high-profile class action civil trial that resulted from the failure of Lincoln Savings, the S&L institution owned and operated by Charles Keating, Jr. Mr. Webb's government experience includes: Assistant U.S. Attorney, Chief of Special Prosecutions Division, U.S. Attorney's Office, U.S. Department of Justice, 1970-1976; U.S. Attorney, Northern District of Illinois, 1981-1985. Mr. Webb received a J.D. in 1970 from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where he graduated first in his class.