Publications: Update on Illinois Law on Contingent or Success Fees

To read the original Client Update in PDF format, please click the Related Files link.

Lobbyist Services: All Success Fees Now Prohibited

On August 9, 2004, Governor Blagojevich signed HB7307, titled “An Act Concerning Executive Agencies,” into law. It is now Public Act 93-0889.¹ Section 10 of P.A. 93-0889 amends the Illinois Lobbyist Registration Act to extend the ban on contingent or success fees – which previously had applied only to legislative action (i.e., the passage or defeat of legislation) – to ban contingent fees with respect to executive and administrative action, as well. Section 8 of the Illinois Lobbyist Registration Act now expressly provides that:

No person shall retain or employ another to lobby with respect to any legislative, executive, or administrative action for compensation contingent in whole or in part upon the outcome of the action and no person shall accept any such employment or render any such service for compensation contingent upon the outcome of the legislative, executive, or administrative action.

25 ILCS 170/8.

Courts previously have held that a contract containing a success fee for obtaining legislation is void as against public policy; there is no good faith exception. See Rome v. Upton, 271 Ill. App. 3d 517, 519, 648 N.E.2d 1085, 1087 (1st Dist. 1995), citing In re Browning, 23 Ill. 2d 483, 179 N.E.2d 14 (1962) (per curiam) and Crichfield v. Bermudez, 174 Ill. 466, 51 N.E. 552 (1898). The same should hold true for contracts containing success fees for obtaining administrative or executive actions.

¹ This article does not address or analyze whether P.A. 93-0889 is constitutional.