Brett H. Pyrdek is a partner in the Chicago office of Barnes & Thornburg LLP. As a member of the Litigation Department, he concentrates his practice in the areas of commercial litigation and regulatory investigations, with a focus on the representation of financial institutions. He is a member of three of the firm’s practice groups: Financial and Regulatory Litigation, Compliance, and White Collar and Investigations.
Mr. Pyrdek has returned to the firm following his experience as an assistant general counsel and in-house litigator in JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s legal department. His responsibilities included handling litigation matters, disputes, regulatory inquiries, and internal investigations for the bank. He was a member of litigation groups supporting the consumer and business banking and credit card banking lines of business throughout their various U.S. jurisdictions. He also managed an Early Dispute Resolution team responsible for resolving certain disputes and litigation pertaining to retail banking products and services nationwide.
Mr. Pyrdek was also a member of the J.P. Morgan legal team in London responsible for litigation and regulatory enforcement matters related to the bank's operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). He advised key stakeholders for the corporate and investment banking, asset management, and private banking lines of business on best practices to mitigate litigation risk and reputational concerns. Mr. Pyrdek's matters in EMEA included private disputes and civil litigation, as well as internal reviews, government investigations, and regulatory enforcement matters under the purview of prudential banking, financial services, securities, and competition regulators and enforcement authorities in the region and the U.S.
Prior to his in-house roles, Mr. Pyrdek was a litigation associate and started his legal career with Barnes & Thornburg. As an associate, his experience included a variety of commercial litigation and regulatory investigation matters, including the representation of corporate policyholders in insurance coverage disputes.
Before becoming an attorney, Mr. Pyrdek was an officer in the U.S. Army. While in the Army, he served as an ordnance platoon leader during the initial phase of the Kosovo Campaign and as an ammunition control officer and detachment commander in Germany. He is conversational in German.
Mr. Pyrdek earned his J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law in 2005, where he served as the notes editor for the Elder Law Journal, as well as a law clerk for the Office of the Champaign County State’s Attorney. He received his M.B.A. in 2005 and his B.S. in 1997 from the University of Illinois College of Business at Urbana-Champaign.
In addition to being admitted to practice in the state of Illinois, Mr. Pyrdek is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Courts for the Northern District of Illinois and the Northern District of Indiana.
