When Matthew Topic first left Kirkland & Ellis to launch his open-records practice at the Chicago plaintiffs boutique Loevy & Loevy in March 2014, it was just him and a single paralegal working part-time on three Illinois Freedom of Information Act cases.

A lot has changed since then. Working alongside five lawyers and paralegals, Topic is now juggling 200 FOIA cases, mostly in Illinois and federal courts, although he has been “dabbling” in FOIA cases in other states, such as Florida and Alabama.