George McAndrews

George McAndrews is our exclusively recommended Trademark Law expert in Illinois on the Advisory Excellence website. If you need assistance in this area, please contact George directly using the contact details listed above.

George is one of the firm’s founding partners. Today, he counsels clients in all phases of patent, trademark, antitrust, fiduciary duty, unfair competition, warranty, and other IP law.  He is also a skilled litigator, primarily in mechanical, electrical and chemical intellectual property and technology, before juries, in federal and state courts throughout the United States and before such administrative bodies such as the International Trade Commission.

George received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame, where he was elected “Engineer of the Year.” He received his J.D. from the same university, ranking second in his class and having served as editor-in-chief of the Notre Dame Law Review and Chairman of the National Council of Law Review Editors.  He has also received honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters and of Human Biology.

He lectures widely on intellectual property law and trial techniques before juries and judges, and has addressed circuit conferences of United States judges on various aspects of trial practice. He is a veteran of the United States Navy.

George has represented many clients involved in both million-dollar and billion-dollar patent disputes.  Few litigation specialists in the nation have achieved as many significant awards for clients, ranging from $1 million to $2 billion in size.

He also represents clients that have been unjustly accused of patent or trademark infringement or to whom exorbitant, unjustified demands have been made, e.g., case was “a poorly conceived, unsupported attempt to gain a competitive advantage” with the patent owner being ordered to pay the defendant $1.5 million in attorneys fees and costs and “less than one-tenth the amount the plaintiff had sought in damages.”

In 1997, after a successful 19-day complex patent jury trial involving more than 10 attorneys, a professional jury consultant reported: “Of all the lawyers, George McAndrews had the most positive image among jurors.

This was true of jurors who favoured his client as well as the defendant.  Specifically, jurors felt Mr. McAndrews showed respect to the witnesses and did not talk down to the jury. His clarity helped the jurors the most to make sense of this complexity…and he was detail oriented.”

George’s clients have included DuPont, General Foods, Laporte, Merck, Genlyte, American Home Products, Spalding, Heil, Solo Cup, Fort Howard, Beloit, Prestolite, Maremont, Evenflo, Rexam, Belden, Arachnid, Thetford, CSP Technologies, Inc., Rockwood Specialties, Inc., E.H. Wachs, Co., The American Chiropractic Association, Weyerhaeuser, and other national and international companies.

He was lead trial counsel for the successful plaintiffs in the celebrated 14-year antitrust case entitled Wilk et al v. AMA et al.

To this day, George believes that two of the most significant highlights of his career have been the 1999 inclusion of his firm in “America’s Greatest Places to Work with a Law Degree” by Kimm Alayne Walton, J.D., and his firm as being named among the “100 Top Workplaces in the Chicagoland Area” by the Chicago Tribune.