RECENT NEWS FROM PLF: AUGUST 2025

Dear Readers,

Welcome to August’s edition of PLF’s Newsletter. In this issue, we bring you recent legal updates, insights, and practical tips to help you and your business thrive in the complex legal landscape.

Client Victories 

SafeSport Litigation. SafeSport is a non-profit entity authorized by Congress in 2017 with the stated goal of ending sexual, physical and emotional abuse involving athletes. Associated Press Journalist Eddie Pells posted on a recent case, where concerns of sexual misconduct were reported to SafeSport by victims and a gym owner years ago. SafeSport failed to complete an investigation allowing the alleged perpetrator to continue victimizing athletes. Despite SafeSport’s intransigence, the FBI and local law enforcement persisted in their efforts leading to the alleged perpetrator recently being arrested.

Pells quoted PLF Attorney Steve Silvey: “From an outward operational view, it seems that if SafeSport is involved in any way, the situation turns glow-in-the-dark toxic, said attorney Steve Silvey, a longtime SafeSport critic who has represented people in cases involving the Center … SafeSport is now part of a larger problem rather than a solution, if it was ever a solution … The most fundamental professional task such as coordination with local or federal law enforcement gets botched on a daily basis, hundreds of times a year now.” A link to the article is at https://apnews.com/article/usa-gymnastics-coach-sex-abuse-safesport-0fd04e5ea487310b0660325a29a2b1c3 (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Steve Silvey has substantial SafeSport experience attempting to address SafeSport’s policy and procedures. He is actively assisting Olympic National Governing Bodies; SafeSport investigations, audits, and adjudications; and collegiate athletic departments. He is General Counsel for the U.S. Sport Safety Council https://ussportsafetycouncil.com/. He concentrates his law practice in the areas of business, risk management, professional liability, complex commercial litigation, and administrative hearings.                                               

Testimonial 

A message from a client to Alyssa Kiriakos: “We trust you completely and we appreciate everything that you’re doing for us because we couldn’t do this without you.”

Illinois Supreme Court Adopts Partial Breach Doctrine

In the recent decision PML Development, LLC v. Village of Hawthorn Woods, 2023 IL 128770, the Illinois Supreme Court formally adopted the partial breach doctrine—a significant development for businesses involved in contract disputes.

Traditionally, the “First-to-Breach” rule allowed a non-breaching party to stop performing and sue for damages. However, under the partial breach doctrine, if the allegedly injured party chooses to continue performing after the other party’s material breach, the breach morphs into a partial breach. This means the injured party remains bound to its obligations, even while pursuing damages. 

In PML, both parties had committed material breaches of a development agreement. Because each party elected to continue honoring the contract, they both remained liable, and the court remanded the case to calculate offsetting damages. 

This ruling underscores how critical it is to make a decision when confronting a breach: terminating the contract right away or continue performing, but risk breach liability yourself.

Failing to evaluate the consequences of continuing under a breached agreement can result in unintended liability—and unintended costs.

Practical Tip: Follow Legal Advice, Even If It’s Inconvenient

Your attorneys are managing risk. Ignoring advice because it’s time-consuming or politically difficult within the company can backfire.
Legal strategies often conflict with business priorities—that’s normal.
But pushing back without understanding the risk can damage your defense. Discuss concerns openly and ask for alternatives, not shortcuts.

PLF Pro Tip: If you’re tempted to resist counsel’s advice, request a risk memo instead of improvising. This protects you and gives leadership a written summary of legal exposure.

Firm News

In a recent review of American Populist: Huey Long of Louisiana, author James P. Pinkerton, writing in The American Conservative.

Stated:

“Comes now a new biography: Thomas E. Patterson’s American Populist: Huey Long of Louisiana.  It’s a perfectly fine work of scholarship, detailing Long’s brief, wild life: up from a hardscrabble farm in Winn Parish—where he memorized Bible verses even as he smoked and drank and schemed—to his days as a traveling salesman, as a successful lawyer (he argued, and won, a case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1922, drawing praise from Chief Justice Taft), to his election to statewide offices (including governor and senator), to his burst to prominence as a nationwide populist crusader, to his pending presidential bid—until he was gunned down by a killer.  .”

A link to his entire article is here:

Huey Long in the Age of Donald Trump—and Zohran Mamdani – The American Conservative

Contact Us

For further information or legal assistance, reach out to us at:

Thank you for reading! We look forward to supporting your business.

Best regards, 

PLF

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