Upon further review, the Chicago Bears appear to have completed a settlement to draw down a lawsuit accusing the team of allegedly discriminating against white male applicants for certain "diversity" job opportunities in the team's front office.
On Dec. 10, a Chicago federal judge ordered an end to the legal action brought against the Bears by named plaintiff Jonathan Bresser Jr.
According to a stipulation of dismissal posted to the online federal court docket for the case, Bresser and the Bears told the court the lawsuit has "been fully and confidentially settled, compromised and adjourned."
None of the settlement documents posted online indicate that Bresser was joined in the settlement by his one-time attorneys and former employers, the Trent Law Firm, of Chicago.
The apparent termination of Bresser's case against the Bears comes about two months since the Trent Firm had asked the court to put the settlement on hold while it considered legal action against Bresser for allegedly double crossing them in settling the lawsuit against the Bears to block them from receiving attorney fees they were seeking from the deal.
Bresser, who had worked as a paralegal at the Trent Law Firm, filed suit against the Bears in March 2024. Bresser was represented at the time by attorneys from the Trent firm.
Bresser, identified as a white male student at DePaul University's Law School, claimed in the action that the Bears had violated federal anti-discrimination laws by limiting a so-called "diversity" jobs program only to law school students who are "people of color" or female.
In addition to the Bears organization itself, the lawsuit also named as defendants the team's Chairman George McCaskey and members of the organization's human resources and "diversity, equity and inclusion" teams.
According to the lawsuit, Bresser responded to a job listing through the program for a "Legal Diversity Fellow" position.
According to the lawsuit, the Bears specifically listed in the job posting that applicants must be "a person of color and/or female law student." The job ad also listed other qualifications for the position, including "a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale;" "demonstrated ability to maintain confidentiality;" "excellent research and writing skills;" "proficient in Microsoft Office ... and Adobe Acrobat;" and "demonstrated ability to effectively manage and prioritize multiple projects ..., deadlines and initiatives with minimal supervision."
In the lawsuit, Bresser claimed he met or exceeded every listed qualification for the position, except for being a white male.
The lawsuit sought a court order requiring the Bears to end hiring practices based on race and gender and directing the Bears and the individual defendants to pay him unspecified money damages, plus attorney fees.
At the end of August, Bresser and the Bears told the court they had clinched a "binding settlement agreement" to end the case.
In the filing, the Trent Law Firm asserted Bresser had "resigned abruptly" from his position at the firm on Sept. 27.
He then terminated the Trent firm as his attorneys in the case against the Bears on Oct. 19.
According to the motion, this termination allegedly occurred after "a settlement had already been reached, but before the disbursement of settlement funds."
According to the motion, before he left the firm, Bresser allegedly also did not file a lien notice needed to ensure the Trent firm could secure attorney fees for their work in the case under the settlement.
According to the motion, Bresser allegedly understood this lien notification to be a part of his job with the firm and allegedly "falsely assured Trent that it had been completed."
The motion further accused Bresser of other alleged misconduct before he left the firm, "including deleting digital files related to ongoing cases, altering office system passwords without providing the updated credentials, and misusing the firm's PACER account to print over 1,000 pages of unrelated documents." These actions allegedly resulted in the suspension of the firm's account to access the PACER system, which provides access to federal court documents.
In their motion, the Trent firm said it believes Bresser may have allegedly taken these alleged actions to "retain a larger share of the settlement proceeds for himself."
According to the motion, as of late October, the firm and Bresser had been unable to resolve their dispute outside of court.
The Trent firm said it intended to sue Bresser in Cook County Circuit Court and asked the federal court to put the case on hold until it could resolve its dispute with Bresser.
The federal court orders ending the lawsuit doesn't make clear that Bresser and the Trent firm had settled the dispute.
A search of online Cook County court records also did not reveal if the Trent firm had followed through on its litigation threats.
In mid-November, Bresser filed an appearance in court, indicating he was representing himself in the action.
While the stipulation of dismissal was signed by attorneys for the Bears, Bresser signed the stipulation on his own behalf, without an attorney.
A court order also indicated Bresser had agreed to dismiss the action against all individual defendants, including George McCaskey.
The Chicago Bears were represented by attorneys Renee L. Koehlger, Jeanette Sublett and Stephanie M. Dinkel, of the firm of Neal & Leroy, of Chicago.