Trial lawyer Edward L. Foote was one of the drivers behind the growth of Winston & Strawn during his 60 years with the firm.
“Ed Foote dominated the Chicago trial lawyer practice for decades because of his extraordinary skills in the courtroom that captivated jurors,” said trial lawyer Dan K. Webb, Winston & Strawn’s co-executive chairman and a former U.S. attorney. “He was the best of the best.”
Foote, 90, died of heart-related causes on May 18 at his Aurora home, said his son, Bob.
Born in Ottawa, Ill., Foote grew up in Aurora and graduated from West Aurora High School in 1946. Foote served a year with the Marines in Quantico, Va., before joining the reserves. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University in 1952 and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1955.
Winston & Strawn hired Foote in 1955 as its 35th lawyer — he was he only lawyer hired by the firm that year. During his interviews, Foote expressed interest in trying cases Winston & Strawn had just taken on a slew of cases from the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and promised Foote that he would be in the courtroom from the outset, his son said.
From there, Foote honed his expertise in the area of arguing cases at trial, and he oversaw Winston & Strawn’s litigation department for almost 20 years.
“Ed Foote is on the short list of the best trial lawyers I ever saw,” said author Scott Turow, a partner at the Dentons law firm. “Like all those ‘bests’ in any walk of life, he was inimitable. I could never figure out how he dreamed up most of his angles of attack on my witnesses, which meant there was no way to prepare them. He was a lawyer of unrivaled imagination — and great decency and wit. Juries adored him and so did his opponents — no small feat. He was a true great.”
Among the areas that Foote focused on were building the firm’s practices in patent infringement, white collar defense work, antitrust litigation, securities litigation and other complex commercial litigation.
Just as important, colleagues said, was Foote’s broader leadership of the firm. During the 1970s and 1980s, Foote, along with former managing partner Tom Reynolds Jr., oversaw Winston & Strawn.
Foote also mentored many young trial lawyers at the firm.
“He had a real ability to connect with people and to meet them where they were,” said former Winston & Strawn partner Peter McCabe. “He was a real critical piece of building me as a lawyer, as a friend and as a father. He was something special.”
McCabe noted that Foote “gave you … room, if you will, to make mistakes as well as to shine.”
Foote retired from Winston & Strawn at the end of 2015 after six decades on the job. During retirement, Foote taught a class in trial advocacy at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
In addition to his son, Foote also is survived by his wife of 67 years, Helen; two daughters, Cathleen Potter and Elizabeth Eastwood; a brother, William; a sister, Marge Medgyesi; and five grandchildren.
Services were held.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
