Attorney Profiles

Michael Kanovitz is a partner at Loevy & Loevy. He is a graduate of Brandeis University, where he obtained his undergraduate degree in English, and Cornell Law School, where he was awarded his J.D.

Mr. Kanovitz's practice areas include Section 1983 civil rights litigation, encompassing civil rights litigation, including civil rights class actions, "qui tam" (whistleblower) litigation under the federal and state False Claims Acts, consumer protection class actions, and general commercial litigation.

Currently, Mr. Kanovitz is pursuing a number of civil rights cases which challenge a disturbing pattern of wrongful arrests/detentions by the Chicago Police Department, several of which highlight the Department's trend of inflicting "soft torture" (involving the use of extended shackling as well as deprivations of food, sleep and bathroom access) in connection with prolonged interrogations. The case of Dunn et al. v. City of Chicago, Case No. 04 C 6804, is a class action brought to remedy Chicago's "hold past court call" policy, which allows police officers and detectives to keep arrestees from court in order to interrogate them. Judge Gettleman certified several classes in October 2005. Kittler v. City of Chicago, Case No. 03 C 6992, is an individual action for a coerced confession which landed a 15 year-old boy in prison for five years until the confession was finally suppressed on appeal. Mr. Kanovitz is also class counsel on behalf of Loevy & Loevy in the case of Solon v. Midwest Medical Records Assoc., Inc., Case No. 04 CH 7199. The suit seeks damages as well as injunctive relief on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Illinois patients against one of the largest medical record management companies in the country.

Mr. Kanovitz has also handled a number of cases on behalf of whistleblowers. Recently, he represented Karen Cericola, a former banking industry insider, and helped her blow the whistle on fraud in the mortgage loan industry in the case United States ex rel. Karen Cericola v. Ben Franklin Bank, Case No. 99 C 6311. The case resulted in a favorable settlement for both Ms. Cericola and United States tax payers. Mr. Kanovitz also recently settled a case brought by a Texas whistleblower concerning the environmental contamination of government property by a military defense contractor in United States ex rel. Stephen G. Coppock v. Northrop Grumman Corporation, Case No. 3-98-CV-2143-D. In both of these cases the government declined intervention, meaning that Mr. Kanovitz prosecuted the case under the private attorney general powers of the False Claims Act.

In addition to his litigation work, Mr. Kanovitz is co-author of the text book Constitutional Law, which is published by Lexis/Nexis and is now in its Tenth Edition. The book is used to teach law enforcement officers throughout the country about the United States Constitution.