Relationships count for a lot – including getting his Marengo law firm involved in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit with Monsanto, Jack Franks said.

“It is all about relationships and people who trust one another,” Franks said.

Franks, the former McHenry County Board chairman and 63rd District state representative, spoke this week about the $120 million settlement announced in early December.

Filed in 2023 in Cook County courts, the suit alleged that Monsanto and the other defendant companies were “negligent in their manufacture and distribution of PCB products, negligently failed to warn the municipalities and the public about the dangers posed by PCBs, caused a public and private nuisance, and caused PCBs to trespass on municipalities’ property,” according to a release from the firm.

PCBs have been banned by the EPA since 1979, the release states. Illinois Environmental Protection Agency required the plaintiff municipalities reduce their stormwater runoff PCB concentrations by more than 99%.

The municipalities filed suit primarily to recover the cost, the release states, and the lawsuit does not allege any contamination to the municipalities’ drinking water.

Monsanto, the chemical and seed company, was sued over its use of “forever chemicals” of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

Franks’ firm of Franks Gerkin Ponitz & Greeley became involved in the dispute because of his law school days with Matt Pawa of Massachusetts-based Pawa and Associates.

Pawa “has become a national powerhouse when it comes to environmental stuff,” Franks said. Pawa was also “a buddy of my old college roommate,” and the two kept in touch over the years, Franks said.

Pawa told Franks about the case Pawa’s firm settled in California, but that also had ties to Illinois.

The towns of Evanston, Lake Forest, North Chicago, Beach Park, Lake Bluff, Winnetka, Winthrop Harbor and Zion – all on Lake Michigan – were represented in the suit, Franks said.

“I know the mayors” of those communities, Franks said, adding those relationships encouraged the communities to opt out of a larger, national class action settlement and go after the companies in a separate action.

“If they had not opted out, they would have gotten significantly less” to help pay for the cleanup, Franks said. “I want to thank these forward-looking officials who are protecting their communities.”

According to a release from Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office, the settlement will also provide cleanup funds for the state of Illinois and Chicago.

According to Raoul’s office, by March 31, Illinois will receive $80 million to be allocated to the state and the nine settling cities. The state will also receive a minimum of $40 million – up to a maximum of $200 million – in related legal actions.

The PCB suits are separate from the lawsuits over per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also called PFAS or “forever chemicals,” that other communities are suing over due to their presence in municipal water supplies.

Franks is working on suits regarding those chemicals as well.

“We are going to keep bringing justice for those who need it,” Franks said.