Newly Created Boarding School Saved from Competitor's Lawsuit

Client:	Trustees of the Conserve School
Representation:	Defense of Suit for Breach of Fiduciary Duty
Date:	2007
Locations:	Northern District of Illinois

Summary:

In 2007 Schiff Hardin successfully concluded its representation of the trustees of the Conserve School, an innovative new boarding school, in a lawsuit that threatened the entire trust corpus. The school was the dream and legacy of Chicago industrialist and philanthropist James R. Lowenstine. His former business colleagues, who serve as trustees of the $200+ million charitable trust he established, designed and built the school on his land in the North Woods of Wisconsin, creating a state-of-the-art institution from scratch.

In 2005, several years after the school opened its doors to students, a rival private school (and remote contingent beneficiary of the trust) filed suit in federal court, claiming that the trustees never should have built the school and were breaching their fiduciary duties by continuing to operate it. After extensive discovery, the case was dismissed with prejudice without any payment by our clients.