Matthew P. Tyrrell

Matt’s primary practice is dedicated to representing management and executives in all aspects of the employment relationship.  Matt also represents individuals and businesses in complex commercial litigation disputes, including employment matters.   

Employment Counseling: Drawing on his extensive, broad-based employment law experience, including years representing individual employees and employers, Matt advises clients how to successfully navigate complex employment and workplace legal issues, with the primary objective of preventing employment litigation and exposure from the outset.  To that end, Matt emphasizes fresh perspectives, practicality, and creative solutions when counseling clients on difficult employment law issues.  Matt’s employment counseling experience encompasses all aspects of the employment law framework, including preparing and negotiating employment contracts, restrictive covenants, and severance agreements, and counseling clients regarding Title VII, ADA, ADEA, FLSA, FMLA, the Illinois Human Rights Act, the Illinois Wage Payment & Collection Act, discrimination, harassment, and other federal, state or local employment-related laws and claims. 

Employment Litigation:  In many instances, employment litigation is necessary or unavoidable.  Drawing on more than a decade of extensive employment litigation experience, Matt has successfully represented clients in a broad-range of employment disputes in federal and state courts including claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Illinois Whistleblower Act, the Illinois Human Rights Act, the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act, breach of contract, misappropriation or conversion of employer assets, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and various other employment related claims.  In addition to federal and state court litigation, Matt represents clients before federal and state administrative agencies, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Illinois Human Rights Department, the United States Department of Labor, and the Illinois Department of Labor, as well as alternative dispute proceedings, including private arbitrations and mediations.

Complex Commercial Litigation:  In addition to his employment practice, Matt represents clients in a variety of complex commercial litigation disputes in state and federal courts throughout the nation.  For more than a decade, Matt has obtained extensive, in-depth experience in all aspects of the litigation process, including pre-suit investigations, preparing and responding to pleadings, motion practice, written discovery, complex e-discovery management, taking and defending depositions, dispositive motions, first and second chair trial experience, voir dire, jury selection and instructions, witness examinations, post-trial proceedings and appeals.  Matt’s litigation experience covers a broad spectrum of commercial disputes, including claims for breach of contract, business torts, unfair competition, fraud, professional negligence, insurance disputes, breach of fiduciary duty, shareholder disputes, defamation, invasion of privacy, restrictive covenants, trade secrets, real estate, sales representative statutes, and others. 

Recent Litigation Matters: Matt served as second chair trial counsel in a bench trial in the Northern District of Illinois in connection with a firm client’s claims for fraud against the defendant.  Following a two-day bench trial, the district court entered judgment in favor of the firm’s client and awarded all damages requested.  The defendant subsequently appealed to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.  Matt and the firm prevailed on appeal, and Seventh Circuit issued unanimous decision affirming the judgment in favor of the firm’s client. Beauty Enterprises, Inc. v. Gregory, 825 Fed. Appx. 378 (7th Cir. Aug. 28, 2020). 

In July 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Matt served as second chair trial counsel on behalf of an independent sales representative agency in a two-week, in person jury trial in Tennessee federal court involving claims against the agency’s former principal for unpaid commission and statutory damages.  After the trial, the jury issued unanimous verdict in favor of the firm’s client, awarded approximately $750,000 in damages (not including attorneys’ fees in an amount to be determined). 

A few months later, in December 2021, Matt successfully defended a firm client in a suit brought by a former employee for alleged commissions and bonuses in the Circuit Court of Lake County.  Matt served as first chair and sole trial counsel during the two-day, in person bench trial, after which entered judgment in favor of the firm’s clients on all claims and awarded the former employee zero damages. Prior to filing suit, the former employee demanded payment of more than $1.1 million dollars to settle the matter.

Matt received his J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law where he served as Lead Articles Editor of the Loyola University Chicago Law Journal and received the CALI award for academic excellence in legal writing and employment discrimination.  While in law school, he interned for the Honorable James F. Henry (ret.) in the Chancery Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County. Matt has been selected as an Emerging Lawyer in the area of employment law by the Leading Lawyers Network in the state of Illinois from 2016 to 2021, and to the Rising Stars list by Illinois Super Lawyers Magazine from 2014 to 2019.  Matt received his B.A. from Indiana University Bloomington with Honors.  During college, he interned for then-U.S. Senator Evan Bayh on Capitol Hill and spent a semester in Germany studying and traveling the European Union  

The primary focus of Matt’s practice is dedicated to representing management and executives in all aspects of the employment relationship, including employment agreements, severance agreements and non-compete agreements, reductions in force, EEO laws, and human resources practices.  In addition, Matt represents client in various employment litigation matters, including wrongful termination, restrictive covenants, retaliatory discharge, employment discrimination, harassment, wage and hour, whistleblower, and various other employment-related claims in federal and state courts and administrative agencies.  In addition to his employment practice, Matt also represents individuals and businesses in a wide variety of complex commercial litigation matters in federal and state courts.

• J.D., Loyola University Chicago School of Law
• B.A., Indiana University – Bloomington (with Honors)

• Chicago Bar Association
• Faculty, National Business Institute, Inc.

• Illinois Bar Association
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (General and Trial Bar member)
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit