Charles P. Rice was born May 16, 1963, on Long Island, New York. One of ten children, Charlie attended both grade and high school in the South Bend area. He received a B.A. in government from the University of Notre Dame in 1985. Charlie graduated from Notre Dame Law School in 1988.

After working for several years as a trial attorney for an insurance defense firm, Charlie established a successful solo practice in South Bend in 1992. In 2001, Charlie joined with a group of other trial attorneys to form Boveri Murphy Rice, LLP.

For eight years, Charlie served in the United States Army Reserve and was honorably discharged in 1992. He and his wife, Rachel, have three children and reside in Mishawaka, Indiana.

Professional Experience:

• Practice devoted to civil litigation.
• Admitted to practice in the state and federal courts in Indiana and Illinois, as well as in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Court-room verdicts and victories reported in various national media outlets, including the Washington Times, the National Verdict Reporter, ESPN, Chicago Tribune and the Indianapolis Star.
• Named a "Super Lawyer" in the area of plaintiff's personal injury litigation in the March 2005 edition of Indianapolis Monthly magazine during its survey of Indiana's top lawyers.
• Has Handled over 25 appeals and has argued cases before the Indiana Court of Appeals, the Indiana Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Significant Professional Representations:

• Won a landmark decision in the Indiana Supreme Court on behalf of adoptive parents. Child's biological parents and grandparents filed a motion seeking to revoke parents' consents to adoption. The trial court determined that the consents, which were executed prior to birth and were not notarized, were invalid. The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court, in reversing the trial court and the court of appeals, held that failure to execute pre-birth consents to adoption in the presence of any entities as specified in adoption statute did not render consents void.
  View oral argument: Real Video format
  View Indiana Supreme Court decision: MS Word | HTML
• Successfully defended Swiss manufacturer SIG in an $18 million warranty suit brought by Bayer in Federal District Court.
• As attorney for a young girl molested by her former teacher on more than 100 occasions while at school, negotiated a $2.9 million settlement with the Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation and its insurer.
• Obtained an injunction against the University of Notre Dame which allowed Monica Gonzalez, an All-American and World Cup soccer player, to complete her final season of collegiate soccer.
• Won a summary judgment against the California based tobacco company Cigarettes Cheaper in a trademark infringement case. Cigarettes Cheaper, represented by Howry and Simon, claimed that South Bend based cigarette retailer Low Bob's was infringing on the Cigarette Cheaper trademark. Charlie was able to obtain a summary judgment ruling which invalidated two of Cigarette Cheaper's trademarks on the principal register. The case subsequently reached a confidential settlement.
• Filed suit against every member of the Indiana General Assembly on behalf of Mike Pence (now US Representative, 6th District, Indiana) regarding the constitutionality of the practice of "logrolling" legislation in violation of Indiana's "one subject matter" constitutional provision.
• Appointed by the Chief Judge for the United States District Court in South Bend as lead counsel for a plaintiff class with over 30,000 members in a Civil Rights case regarding the St. Joseph County Jail. After several years of litigation, Charlie successfully obtained a consent decree with the County which resulted in the construction of a new $43.5 million facility.
• Engaged by Philip Stenger, Joint Liquidator in the Cayman Islands, to provide a legal opinion on the viability of bringing negligence fraud and RICO claims against the Bank of Bermuda in the United States District Court in Illinois for a ponzi scheme known as Cash 4 Titles. Ultimately, the claims brought by Stenger as Joint Liquidator and receiver for the SEC resulted in a $67.5 Million settlement with the Bank of Bermuda on behalf of defrauded investors.
• Secured a $500,000.00 jury verdict for a child who had been injured by the negligent use of a BB gun. The child was asymptomatic and had approximately $20,000.00 in special damages. The highest offer prior to trial was $225,000.00.
• Obtained a $400,000.00 jury verdict for a young woman who was injured when a towel dispenser fell from a wall and fractured her nose. The plaintiff had less than $5,000.00 in special damages. The highest offer prior to trial was $30,000.00.
• Negotiated a confidential settlement with the South Bend Community School Corporation in a personal injury/civil rights case where a 6 year old black child was injured when he was hit by a car after being dropped off from his school bus two blocks from home. The School Corporation had refused to change the bus stop for the injured student's family, but the white bus driver made an alteration to his route in response to safety complaints made by a white students' family. The 6 year old child was left ventilator dependant for almost three years before his death from the injuries. The School Corporation agreed not only to compensate the child's family, but agreed to demands that wholesale changes in the bus routing and safety policies within the school corporation.
• Obtained a $100,000.00 jury verdict in Federal District Court representing a young woman with soft-tissue injuries who had less than $5,000.00 in medical bills and had not treated for eighteen months prior to trial. The highest offer prior to trial had been $45,000.00.

Published Decisions:

• Adoption of A.M.K., 698 N.E.2d 845 (Ind. Ct. App. 1998)
• Adoption of Baxter, 778 N.E.2d 417 (Ind. Ct. App. 2002)
• Adoption of E.B., 733 N.E.2d 4 (Ind. Ct. App. 2000)
• Adoption of J.P., 713 N.E.2d 873 (Ind. Ct. App. 1999)
• Boshart v. State Bd. Of Tax Comm'rs, 672 N.E.2d 499 (Ind. Tax. Ct. 1996)
• Brett v. Goshen Community School Corp., 161 F. Supp. 2d 930 (N.D. Ind. 2001)
• Estate of Penzenik v. Penz Products, Inc., 749 N.E.2d 61 (Ind. Ct. App. 2001)
• Estate of Penzenik v. Penz Products, Inc., 800 N.E.2d 1007 (Ind. Ct. App. 2004)
• Ford v. Culp Custom Homes, Inc., 731 N.E.2d 1216 (Ind. Ct. App. 2000)
• Kladis v. Nick's Patio, Inc., 735 N.E.2d 1216 (Ind. Ct. App. 2000)
• LTL Truck Service, LLC v. Safeguard, Inc., 817 N.E.2d 664 (Ind. Ct. App. 2004)
• Pence v. Indiana General Assembly, 652 N.E.2d 486 (Ind. 1995)
• Right Reason Publications v. Silva, 691 N.E.2d 1347 (Ind. Ct. App. 1998)
• Wallar v. Osterloo, 758 N.E.2d 59 (Ind. Ct. App. 2001)

Professional Activities:

• St. Joseph County Bar Association
• Indiana State Bar Association
• Illinois State Bar Association