Elizabeth E. Babbitt

Elizabeth is an accomplished trial lawyer, business litigator, and counselor.  She has significant experience leading large and small corporations, public utilities, and municipalities through complex litigation and disputes.  Elizabeth has a unique depth of experience representing clients in civil rights, class action, and employment litigation.  She is 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 also regularly advises businesses regarding matters relating to employment discrimination, unfair business practices, trade secrets, restrictive employment covenants, and breaches of fiduciary duties.  Beyond the litigation context, Elizabeth provides sophisticated advice to businesses regarding compliance on equal access and equal employment issues in the workplace.  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.

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.  She is a member of the Federal Trial Bar. 

"Chapter 5: Problems in Contract Formation," Contract Law (2020 edition) published by IICLE, co-author with Paul Coogan.