Elizabeth E. Babbitt

Elizabeth is an accomplished business litigator and a member of the Taft executive committee. In the last year alone, Elizabeth has successfully defeated three separate attempts to have court-ordered temporary restraining orders (“TROs”) entered against her corporate clients. She has significant experience leading large and small corporations, public utilities, and municipalities through complex litigation and disputes in both federal and state courts.  Elizabeth has a unique depth of experience representing clients in civil rights, class action, and employment litigation.  She is also one of the lead attorneys representing the City of Chicago in the litigation, negotiation, and ongoing implementation of the Chicago Police consent decree and has expertise regarding police practices, use of force, crisis intervention, and police reform measures. 

Elizabeth regularly advises businesses regarding matters relating to employment discrimination, employee whistle-blowing, unfair business practices, trade secrets, restrictive employment covenants, defamation, and breaches of fiduciary duties.  Beyond the litigation context, Elizabeth has a passion for advising businesses regarding compliance on equal access and equal employment issues in the workplace. 

Elizabeth is a proven leader of the legal and civic community. In addition to her service to Taft’s Executive Committee, she participates on the firm’s Associate Advancement and Recruitment Committee, and leads the Chicago office’s women’s affinity group. Beyond her firm commitments, Elizabeth is an active member of the Chicago legal community.  She recently served as President of the University of Illinois College of Law Alumni Board, and remains an active alumna and mentor to law students.  She is a member of the Judicial Evaluation Committee of the Chicago Bar Association, which provides an assessment to the public of candidates for state court judges.  Elizabeth is a member of the Mother McAuley High School Alumnae Law Society and assists in coaching the school’s mock trial team; she also previously taught trial advocacy to law students at John Marshall Law School.  Prior to joining Taft, Elizabeth was a federal law clerk for the Honorable John W. Darrah of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

• "Chapter 11 — Restrictive Covenants, Trade Secrets, and Fiduciary Duties: The Foundation To Safeguard Competitive Business Advantage," Chancery and Special Remedies (2021 edition) published by IICLE. 
• "Chapter 5 — Problems in Contract Formation," Contract Law (2020 edition) published by IICLE, co-author with Paul Coogan.