Karen P. Layng
Shareholder
T: +1 (312) 609 7891
F: +1 (312) 609 5005
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Chicago
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E:
Immediate Past Litigation Practice Area Leader
Chair, Construction Law Group
Chair, Compensation Committee
Member, Board of Directors
Karen P. Layng, Chair of the Construction Law group of Vedder Price, is the immediate past Chair of the Litigation practice area, is a member of the firm’s Board of Directors and chairs its Compensation Committee. Ms. Layng’s extensive litigation experience includes successfully representing national companies in complex litigation matters before federal and state courts, the I.C.C., the A.A.A. and other alternative dispute resolution forums. Ms. Layng is a member of the A.A.A. Panel of Arbitrators for commercial and construction disputes and serves as Co-Chair of the Program Subcommittee of the American Bar Association Construction Litigation Committee.
Ms. Layng’s litigation experience includes successfully representing major companies including GMAC Commercial Finance, Royal Numico, Ingersoll-Rand Company, Oil-Dri Corporation of America and the Chicago Transit Authority in complex litigation matters. Ms. Layng has also arbitrated or mediated over 50 cases for significant clients such as Bobcat, Inc., Blaw-Knox Company, Nycomed Amersham, Texas Eastern Products Pipeline Company, Kenny Construction Company, South Shore Bank and Thermo King Corporation.
Ms. Layng is one of the top ten lawyers in Chicago featured in the PLCConstruction and Projects Handbook worldwide edition, published in 2009, and is "AV Preeminent" ranked in Martindale-Hubbell. In 2012, she was named as one of the"Top 50 Women Illinois Super Lawyers." In addition, Ms. Layng was again named this year to the Leading Lawyers Network "Top 100 Leading Women Lawyers in Illinois" list. She was previously featured in the Leading Lawyers Network—Real Estate, Construction & Environmental Edition for January 2010 as well as the Women’s Edition forJuly 2009 and is a current member of the Construction Law Advisory Panel for Leading Lawyers. In 2011, Ms. Layng was ranked in Chambers USA in the Illinois Construction category. The Legal 500 United States guide also recommends Ms. Layng in the Real Estate and Construction (including Construction Litigation) category.
Ms. Layng served as the first woman president of the Seventh Circuit Bar Association in its then-51-year history and as secretary of the organization for four years. She is on the Board of Directors for the Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana Girl Scouts Council and serves as chair of the Long Range Property Planning Committee, is immediate past co-president of the St. Ignatius Parent Organization and a past president of the Board of Directors of the University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Alumni Association. She chaired the UIUC Alumni Council and received the Distinguished Service Award from the University of Illinois for her exceptional service to the Alumni Association. She was also a six-year member of the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association and chaired the Riverside Plan Commission, assisting in the rewrite of the village’s historic and award-winning planning and zoning code.
Ms. Layng has taught civil litigation, ethics and intellectual property courses at Roosevelt University for its legal assistants’ programs, as well as persuasive speaking and writing at the University of Illinois. She has frequently spoken and authored on the above topics and was a co-author of the IICLE Unfair Competition Franchising chapter.
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- J.D., University of Illinois College of Law, 1987
- B.A., University of Illinois, 1984
- University of Dijon, France, 1982
- Illinois, 1987
- US District Court, Northern District of Illinois, 1987 (Trial Bar, 1991)
- US District Court, District of Columbia, 1989
- US District Court, Central District of Illinois, 2002
- US Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, 1991
- US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, 1992
- US Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, 2005
- Co-Chair of the Program Subcommittee of the American BarAssociation Construction Litigation Committee
- Past President and former Secretary of the Seventh Circuit Bar Association; current member
- Member, Board of Directors, Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana Girl Scouts Council
- Member, Chicago Bar Association
- Member and former Board Member, University of Illinois Alumni Association (recipient of the University’s Distinguished Service Award)
Recent Publications
- Featured in "From Tinker Toys to a Complex Litigation Practice," Leading Lawyers Network - Real Estate, Construction & Environmental Edition, January 2010
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