Tawfiq Ali

A highly successful advocate in federal and state courts, as well as in arbitration and settlement negotiations, Ali has spent his entire career as a lawyer helping businesses and executives solve tough legal disputes. His success also depends on years of experience guiding clients through the various stages of a dispute, which are often extremely contentious. Frequently time is of the essence, and efficiency is of premium importance. It is unfortunate that the risks of business include the likelihood that sooner or later, a dispute will arise with a supplier, buyer, joint venturer, or competitor, but it is also reality - and the sooner you can begin to solve it, the more likely it is that you can limit the disruption to your business.

Ali enjoys leading interactive workshops and teaching in the classroom, unsurprisingly so, considering his passion for public speaking, in the courts and other venues. At Columbia College, Ali taught a business-law course that (all within one intensive semester) taught many of the complexities of constitutional, criminal, contract, tort, and intellectual-property law. His students were very engaged and showed remarkable promise - and will be taking their new-found knowledge and problem-solving skills into the business world.

Ali took his training and experience in business litigation a step further when he joined Grippo & Elden LLC as an associate in 2009. At G&E, Ali helped businesses and high net-worth clients in commercial litigation matters pending around the country. These matters included patent litigation, class-action litigation, executive-compensation litigation, insurance-coverage disputes, trade-secret litigation, and others - and his work contributed to significant, favorable rulings in the courts and arbitration. G&E is widely known in the Chicago legal community as a boutique business litigation firm, and has received several accolades, such as, top medium-sized litigation firm in Illinois by Super Lawyers Magazine and Mid-Market winner of Intellectual Property Enforcement Law Firm of the Year in Illinois by Corporate INTL magazine.

Ali began his legal career representing Fortune 500 companies and others in commercial litigation at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, perennially ranked the #1 law firm in Chicago by Vault, and especially known for its excellence in handling business lawsuits. Even early in his career, Ali deposed witnesses and argued in court, in addition to writing well-regarded briefs and managing complex discovery. Ali completed three levels of the Kirkland Institute of Trial Advocacy, and considers the training and experience he gained at K&E to be an advantage in his representation of business clients today.

Even before he had a law license, Ali was successfully writing briefs, taking depositions, negotiating settlements, arguing in court, and first-chairing trial teams - as a student attorney at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. He was selected as a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau through a highly competitive application process, and served for two years. Ali believes working and training at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau gave him an incomparable opportunity to develop as a litigator, even before he graduated law school.

Ali successfully prosecuted preliminary hearings, examined witnesses, argued motions, and negotiated plea bargains in the Felony Pre-Trials Unit of the Genesee County Prosecutor's Office, in Flint, MI, as a law student on a Harvard Law School public interest fellowship.

With Testmasters, Ali taught and tutored aspiring graduate school applicants who were preparing to take standardized exams. These classes took place all over the country, and were highly interactive and intensive - resulting in strong improvements for most of his students. Among other things, Ali qualified to teach for Testmasters because he received a perfect score on both the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) and Graduate Record Exam (GRE).