Patrick J. Keating

Patrick Keating is an attorney with the Simmons firm. He concentrates his practice in complex commercial litigation and class actions, with an emphasis on cases involving transportation. He is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Illinois, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (including Trial Bar), and the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Seventh and Ninth Circuits. He has also been admitted specially and tried cases in many other state and federal courts from California to New York.

His specialty is handling cases that involve both complex technical questions and complicated legal questions: 

• Initiated and successfully resolved a complex $115 million products liability claim against McDonnell Douglas on behalf of the airline purchaser and its subrogated insurers. This involved both determining the exact flaws in the flight control software of a jumbo jet and navigating a legal strategy that allowed the case to proceed despite an aircraft purchase contract over 200 pages in length, which contained dozens of clauses designed to limit the airline's recovery.

•  Prosecuted a subrogation claim on behalf of insurers seeking to recover from a shipper of undeclared hazardous materials that ignited in flight and destroyed a DC-10 cargo jet. The chain of events leading to the destruction of the jet was so difficult to determine that even the National Transportation Safety Board could not pinpoint the probable cause of the loss – one of the few times the NTSB has ever failed to determine the sequence of events leading to the loss of a large transport category aircraft. Supervised a multidisciplinary team of legal and technical experts which was able to determine the exact sequence of events - including the negligence of a product shipper - which destroyed the aircraft. As a result a substantial recovery was obtained for the client prior to trial.

• Resisted the attempts of an Australian corporation to remove a $300 million class action, filed in Illinois, into the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

• Obtained summary judgment and several default judgments in U.S. District Court on behalf of a small, Hong Kong based air freight forwarder against a much larger competitor, based in India, over unpaid freight commissions. When the defendant pleaded an inability to pay the judgment,  successfully investigated, located and seized substantial assets in a New York bank account.

• Retained by the victims of the 2008 shipwreck of the fishing vessel "Fin Seeker" during a "wake low" storm event on Lake Michigan. Successfully defended the victims against an aggressive legal maneuver, based on an obscure 19^th century statute, which was brought against the victims by the owner of the vessel.

• Successfully resolved complex products liability claims brought against numerous manufacturers in connection with the fatal crash of a Mitsubishi MU-2 aircraft in New Mexico, and defended the client's successful summary judgment in the Illinois Appellate and Supreme Courts.

• Briefed and orally argued complex issues involving international treaty interpretation in the US Courts of Appeals for the Second Circuit (New York) and the Ninth Circuit (San Francisco).

Since 2002 Patrick has held an “AV” rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the organization’s highest distinction for attorneys. He has also been named an Illinois Super Lawyer for three consecutive years by the editors of Law & Politics Magazine.

Representative Experience

• Class Action
• Aviation and Commercial Transportation
• Complex Commercial Disputes
• Constitutional Litigation
• Appellate
• Product Liability
• Property Litigation

News & Publications

Author, “Montalvo Signals New Direction for Federal preemption in Aviation Cases” Aviation Litigation Quarterly.

Panelist, “Aviation Products Liability”, ABA Aviation and Space Law Litigation National Program, Washington DC, October 2006.

Speaker at the 28^th Air Transport Association Freight Claims Seminar, Las Vegas NV, September 2003.

Lead author, "Recent Developments in Aviation & Space Law," Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Law Journal, Volume 38: Number 2, Winter 2003.

Co-author, “Warsaw Convention Issues,”ABA Aviation Litigation Newsletter, Volume XI, number 1, Winter/Spring 1999.

Professional & Community Affiliations

• American Bar Association
• Lawyer-Pilots Bar Association
• Member, Infant Jesus of Prague School Board
• Princeton Club of Chicago
• Aviation Insurance Association