Joseph J. Andrew

For more than 20 years, Mr. Andrew has practiced corporate law, focusing on mergers and acquisitions of regulated companies In addition, because he served as the National Chair of the Democratic National Committee, Mr. Andrew advises companies and organizations on the larger policy issues involved in each transaction. He has represented many Fortune 1000 companies in negotiating acquisitions, spin-offs, financings, corporate governance disputes and structuring capital market products and organizations to meet their needs.

Best known as a negotiator, Mr. Andrew has led teams that have negotiated major contracts, merged or acquired companies, formed joint ventures and founded new companies. Since joining Sonnenschein in 2004, Mr. Andrew has been involved in negotiating deals worth in excess of $100 billion dollars, including three Fortune 500 mergers in the health care and insurance areas.

Mr. Andrew has counseled companies worldwide on their corporate and policy strategies in a variety of industries, ranging from technology companies to regulated companies in the insurance, energy, life science, banking and telecommunications fields, to foreign acquirers and heads of state. He also advises corporations on issues arising from Capitol Hill, the White House, administrative agencies, and on policy matters in the 50 states.

Mr. Andrew has worked on many “front page” policy, legislative and regulatory efforts over the past several years. He also has assisted in the formation and representation of private, equity venture, and hedge funds and was an early practitioner in the financial information public strategy arena. Mr. Andrew has assisted in the planning and implementation of corporate social responsibility programs, and counsels companies in times of crisis.

In January 1999 while serving as the Indiana State Democratic Chair, President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and the Democratic leadership in the U.S. Congress asked Mr. Andrew to become the National Chair of the Democratic National Committee. He was elected in February 1999 and served until February 2001. Mr. Andrew was one of the youngest national chairs in the nearly 200-year history of the DNC and widely recognized as one of the most successful. Mr. Andrew brought the party out of debt, raised nearly a quarter-billion dollars, hired and managed the most diverse staff in the history of the party, and successfully served as the CEO of an organization with thousands of employees on election day.

Mr. Andrew is an entrepreneur, a published author, a frequent speaker on political and demographic trends, a board member of several nonprofit organizations, and a member of various progressive policy organizations. He is the founder of a socially responsible mutual fund, a biotech consulting firm, and numerous not for profits. In addition to his corporate legal background, he is a leader in corporate social responsibility, socially conscious investing, historic preservation, smart growth and urban planning. He frequently speaks on those issues, as well as election law reform and electronic voting. His spy novel, The Disciples, was published by Simon & Schuster, as was his most recent book on progressive investing and economic trends, The Blue Way.

Mr. Andrew is a graduate of Wayne High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Yale University where he was a Scholar of the House, and The Yale Law School. He clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.