In his day-long testimony, former ComEd general counsel Tom O’Neill got to the heart of the corruption charges against Madigan and his co-defendant, Mike McClain.

O’Neill described the utility giant as one that, as of July 2010, was in a “precarious financial position”: a company that desperately needed a new way to set customer rates.

Tasked with helping make that happen, O’Neill spent the next six and a half years going back and forth to Springfield, negotiating and drafting three major pieces of legislation that were instrumental in changing ComEd’s fortunes.

“I was asked frequently, if not constantly: Does the speaker support this? Or where is the speaker on this?” O’Neill testified.

He said the company relied heavily on hired lobbyist McClain to access Madigan.

“Mr. McClain had free access to the speaker’s room,” said O’Neill, who went on to connect the dots for prosecutors.

They drew a direct line between the legislative initiatives and a contract entered into by ComEd, in October 2011, with Reyes Kurson, a law firm run by Victor Reyes, a political ally of Madigan.

The contract was agreed to just as the General Assembly voted to override Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto of ComEd’s first major legislative push. When O’Neill tried to reduce the law firm’s hours a few years later, while another ComEd bill was preparing to be voted on, ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore received an email from McClain.

“I’m sure you know how valuable Victor is to our friend,” McClain said. “I know the procedure and so do you. If you don’t get involved and solve this problem of 850 hours for your law firm per year, then you will go to our Friend. Our Friend will call me and then I will call you. Is this a drill What should we go through?”

Prosecutors said the “Friend” was Madigan.

In the end, the contract was renewed several months later, around the same time that ComEd’s third major legislative push ended successfully in Springfield. O’Neill returns to the witness stand Tuesday, when defense attorneys are expected to cross-examine him at length.