40 Under Forty 2022

2022 ILLINOIS ATTORNEYS TO WATCH

JORDAN RICE

A quick learner? That’s an apt descrip- tion of commercial litigation special- ist Jordan Rice. Dedicated, relentless and skilled? Those are good descriptors, too. For proof, consider the experience of Richard Sanders, assistant general counsel with pipeline and infrastructure company Kinder Morgan. About three years ago, he hired Rice’s firm, MoloLamken, to repre- sent Kinder Morgan in a series of disputes against several rail carriers. As Sanders says, this area of law involves a mixture of contractual and regulatory rights and ob- ligations and is known as a complex and arcane niche. Before his involvement in the case, Rice had no experience with such disputes. As it turns out, that didn’t matter. “I was very impressed and slightly jeal- ous of Jordan’s quick mastery of the sub- ject matter,” Sanders said. “I was initially concerned that we were going to be ‘out gunned’ by the regulatory specialist at the railroads. Instead, Jordan and his team de- cided on an aggressive litigation strategy that ultimately resulted in a very unexpect- ed victory at the early stages on the case.” During the case, Rice drafted a motion to dismiss the railroad’s pleadings, citing a combination of case law and surface trans- portation rules. This motion educated the judge about the flaws in the rail carrier’s case. Once the motion to dismiss was granted, Kinder Morgan was able to nego- tiate a favorable settlement. This type of success isn’t unusual for Rice. At a young age, he’s already built a reputation as one of the most reliable, and knowledgeable, commercial litigation spe- cialists in the Chicago area.

Jacob Lesser, general counsel for the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, has also worked closely with Rice when the young attorney and his firm assisted the board with an issue involving complex legal research and analysis. Lesser said that Rice quickly and ele- gantly resolved a series of legal questions that had previously consumed a significant amount of internal legal and executive resources at the board. In doing so, Rice drafted a memo that Lesser says remains as the definitive source of truth within the organization on a complicated legal issue. “His ability to describe arcane nuances of the law in language that both lawyers and executives can easily understand is un- surpassed, in my experience, for lawyers at his experience level,” Lesser said. Rice played a key role, too, in a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court adopted the position of the Office of the Indiana Attor- ney General that the Patent Act’s method for appointing administrative patent judg- es violated the U.S. Constitution’s Appoint- ments Clause. James Barta, deputy solicitor general with the Office of the Indiana Attorney Gen- eral, said that Rice was instrumental in craft- ing several of the arguments that the court relied on when invalidating the statute. Outside of handling commercial cases, Rice serves his community. He recent- ly won a jury verdict in a federal trial on behalf of a pro bono client, and he played a key role in creating a partnership be- tween his law firm and Genesys Works, an organization that offers career guidance for high school students in underserved communities.

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His ability to describe arcane nuances of the law in language that both lawyers and executives can easily understand is unsurpassed”

AGE 33

FIRM MoloLamken

LAW SCHOOL Stanford Law School

AREA OF PRACTICE Complex commercial litigation, trade secrets, white collar defense

40 Under Forty 2022 CHICAGO LAWYER & CHICAGO DAILY LAW BULLETIN