About Andrew Brandt
Andrew Brandt is an editor on Super Lawyers‘ staff. He serves as the editor for the Illinois, Northern California, Upstate New York, Missouri-Kansas, and Texas magazines, and he additionally writes, fact-checks and proofreads for numerous other Super Lawyers issues (and for the website). He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in English literature and environmental studies, and his byline has appeared in a variety of places, both online and in print.
Articles written by Andrew Brandt
‘A Better Everything’
Employment litigator Gary Gwilliam on 40-plus years of sobrietyI was on the elevator down, but I got pulled out before I hit bottom. Alcohol was always a big part of my life. When I came up to Oakland to become a trial lawyer in the ’60s, drinking was a big deal. It was a very macho, hard-drinking profession—almost like fraternities. We would open up the bar at 11 for our 10 o’clock meetings, and people would be having bloody marys and beers. Like a lot of lawyers, I drifted along until I had some real problems. I’d been drinking every single …
The Floor General
Julie Green’s time playing point at USC prepped her for lawIn 1976, the University of Southern California women's basketball team became one of the first Division I programs in the country to award scholarships to its athletes. That same year, freshman Julie E. Green joined the team. “It was the beginning of women’s basketball, the early stages. We were not even in the NCAA then,” says Green, who remained with the program through her sophomore year. “We actually played with a men’s basketball, and we didn't have 3-point lines. But it was fun, …
A Bar Journal
In her spare time, Alexandrea Messner reviews restaurantsIn early 2025, Alexandrea Messner—a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney at Wallace Miller in Chicago—launched her restaurant-review blog, The Higher Bar. “Before I went to law school, I was considering culinary school. I just really enjoy going out to restaurants and trying new food,” she says. “I think the writing was a natural progression of my love for talking about it.” Messner’s first reviews included two of her favorite spots in Chicago, Le Bouchon and Chef’s Special …
The Long and Long of It
Thomas E. Patterson’s 700-page biography of Huey LongThomas E. Patterson had read T. Harry Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning 1969 Huey Long biography, and he’d watched the Ken Burns documentary on the former Louisiana governor. But it was the 2008 financial crisis that sparked Patterson’s own interest in writing about Long. “Wealth inequality was Huey’s central concern throughout his life,” says Patterson, a business litigator at The Patterson Law Firm in Chicago. “If you’re looking at a biography, you need an interesting person …
How Do I Prove Age Discrimination in a Lawsuit?
If you were laid off or given a demotion as part of a "reorganization" that seems to have targeted older employees, you may have an age discrimination claim under federal and state age discrimination laws. For legal advice on whether you have an age discrimination claim, contact a discrimination law attorney. Signs of Age Discrimination How can you tell if it's an age discrimination lawsuit? Employment law attorneys agree: Age discrimination cases are tough to argue. "It happens a lot in …
Pilot Project
Before law, Matt Moriarty spent a decade in the journalism trenchesIn the summer of 2001, Matt Moriarty took an internship with his hometown newspaper, The Pilot, based in Southern Pines, North Carolina. “It was a small enough operation that, right away, I started getting stories in the paper,” he says. “The first year, I won a couple of awards. In my mind, I’m like, ‘I’m heading to The New York Times! I should be working at The Washington Post right now!’” Instead, Moriarty stayed in Southern Pines, covering everything from crime to politics …
Bouncing Around the Courtroom
The echo of Christine Szpet speaking about Phish“The first time I ever heard the words ‘autonomous zone’ was at Phish’s Festival 8 in Indio, California, in 2009. It was in the context of the small city that Phish built there, on the grounds of the Empire Polo Club, that approximately 40,000 festivalgoers called their home for a long weekend. The festival was carefully curated—art installations, food, vendors, and even a Ferris wheel—intentionally designed to spark joy and conversations amongst the ‘Phans’ in attendance who …
The Balancing Art
Bill Faulkner’s passion for SJMABill Faulkner, a trial attorney at McManis Faulkner, encourages the firm’s lawyers and employees to be active in local nonprofits that connect with them on a personal level. For Faulkner, that’s the San José Museum of Art, where he serves on the executive committee of the board of trustees. Modern and contemporary art has been a lifelong interest for him. “My father was an art professor and artist,” he says, “and he and my mother wrote textbooks on modern art and modern home design …
Getting With the Program
The skills Tahany Alsabahi learned at Program on Intergroup RelationsGrowing up in Dearborn, Michigan, Tahany Alsabahi thought the city was majority Arab American, “because that’s what I saw,” she says. “It wasn’t until college that I met white people from Dearborn, and I was like, ‘What do you mean?’” Her interest in learning about race was further fueled by a class at the University of Michigan offered via the Program on Intergroup Relations (IGR), a social justice education program. Alsabahi enjoyed it so much she began working for IGR, …
‘Having Your Eulogy Before You Die’
Why Steve Levin is thankful for his heart attackNone of what I’m telling you do I actually remember; it’s been filled in over the last three years by numerous people from numerous perspectives. On Sept. 10, 2021, I was in a member-guest golf tournament with my business partner John Perconti. I went down on the 12th hole, and two or more golfers assisted in my resuscitation. But the hero of the story is a caddie I didn’t know, on a different hole, who somehow saw what was going on and came over. His name is Dylan Gainer, and he has …
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