Alumni Spotlight - Chicago Office
Celebrating the Retirement of
Michael Hayes
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We’re celebrating the retirement of Michael Hayes, a Chicago-based partner in our virtual office, The Link. With deep gratitude, we thank Michael for his years of dedication and countless contributions to the firm. Over his remarkable 40+ year career, Michael championed colleges and universities, handling complex cases ranging from class actions to high-stakes litigation.
Join us in learning more about Mike and wishing the very best in his well-earned retirement!
When did you join Husch Blackwell?
I joined HB as part of the combination with the Wisconsin-based Whyte Hirshboeck Dudek firm in 2016. My longtime firm before that, Varga Berger Ledsky Hayes & Casey, had joined WHD as its new Chicago office less than a year before the WHD/HB merger.
Name an HB mentor, past or present, who helped guide your legal career, and describe how.
As I was already a very senior attorney when I joined HB, I can’t really say that I had a mentor at HB. I have enjoyed working with and mentoring some of the very talented younger attorneys in the Chicago office, including Mike Hopkins, Sarah Quinn, Kayla Schmidt, Julie Garabedian, and Katherine Tierney.
Do you have a favorite case or work memory from your time at the firm?
No one case stands out from my time with HB, but I enjoyed defending dozens of class actions under Illinois’s biometric privacy law and finding ways to protect our clients from potentially ruinous exposure under the ridiculous statutory damages scheme in this law. I also really enjoyed working with, and learned a lot from, our terrific Higher Ed group (particularly Chicago colleagues Julie Miceli, Scott Warner, Pete Land, Ellen Babbitt, and Lisa Parker) on various interesting cases for their secondary and higher ed clients.
What will you enjoy doing in your retirement?
In retirement, I plan to improve my obsessively mediocre golf game, travel, and spend a lot of time with my grandkids.