Overview
As a trial lawyer and vice chair of the firm’s Litigation Department, with more than 25 years of experience, Andy Wronski works closely with clients to confront complex disputes that disrupt business, cause stress, and generate commercial and financial uncertainty. He guides clients in assessing and managing risk, proposing creative, practical, and cost-effective dispute resolution strategies; and where business resolutions prove elusive, achieving the client’s legal, business, and strategic goals through litigation. Andy places equal emphasis on proactive, front-end counseling and risk avoidance.
Litigation and Dispute Resolution
Andy primarily focuses his practice on complex litigation and trial work, representing corporate clients involved in sophisticated, high-stakes commercial and financial disputes. He has particular experience litigating claims of complex commercial and financial fraud, including claims asserted under the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), shareholder class actions, (particularly in the M&A context), and securities litigation.
Andy’s litigation and trial experience covers a wide array of other commercial and financial disputes as well, including banking and finance, post-closing M&A disputes (including purchase-price and working capital adjustments), commercial loan enforcement and workouts, insolvency-related litigation, the Uniform Commercial Code, distribution and manufacturing agreement disputes, trade secret claims, and other sophisticated commercial and financial matters. He is a member of the firm's Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution and Securities Enforcement & Litigation Practices. Andy regularly presents on issues involving trial advocacy, RICO, lender liability, and insolvency-related litigation issues.
Andy's practice is national in scope. He regularly litigates, tries, and arbitrates cases across the country. However, having practiced in the State of Wisconsin for 25 years, Andy is uniquely positioned to assist clients with issues and disputes within the state – he has extensive litigation and trial experience in both state and federal courts across Wisconsin. In addition, Andy is a former president and director of the Milwaukee Bar Association and an active member of the Eastern District of Wisconsin Bar Association and the Seventh Circuit Bar Association.
For his litigation work, Andy has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© since 2013 for commercial litigation, banking & finance litigation, and bankruptcy litigation. Andy was a 2020 “Lawyer of the Year” for insolvency litigation and has been recognized as a "Future Litigation Star" in Benchmark Litigation 2018.
Sports Industry Counseling and Litigation
Andy often brings his litigation, counseling, and trial experience to bear in matters involving professional and collegiate athletics. He is a member of the firm's Sports Industry Team (2015 U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” nationally ranked Tier 1 practice). Andy’s sports litigation experience includes matters involving collegiate conference realignment, professional franchise relocation, sponsorship disputes, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Major League Baseball player salary arbitration. Andy has developed significant experience with respect to the legal and business issues confronting professional sports organizations, and he counsels sports industry clients, including the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club, on a wide variety of legal matters, including facility and ancillary development, franchise acquisition, regulatory compliance, sponsorship and naming rights agreements, ticketing issues, concession and other partnerships, and media rights.
Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility
Andy serves as one of Foley’s professional responsibility partners and counsels firm lawyers and clients through complex ethical and professional responsibility issues. He brings that judgment and experience to his day-to-day practice as well, serving as a trusted advisor to clients on all manner of business and strategic issues. Andy speaks frequently on ethics and professional responsibility.
Education
Andy received his bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, from Marquette University in 1991 and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. His J.D. degree was conferred, summa cum laude, in 1994 by the University of Minnesota, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and was an articles editor of the Minnesota Law Review.
Recent Publications and Presentations
- “10 Things About Your Contracts That Drive Me Nuts – a Litigator’s View,” Foley & Lardner CLE Week, December, 2019
- “The Future Is Now – Ethical Implications of Artificial Intelligence for In-House Counsel,” Wisconsin Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, November, 2019
- “The Ethics of Negotiation: Liar, Liar?,” Wisconsin Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, November, 2017
- “Depositions of Company Witnesses – The Ethical Rules You Need to Know,” Foley & Lardner Fox Valley CLE Conference, November, 2015
- “The Exception That’s Swallowing the American Rule: A Primer on the Wrongful Involvement Exception,” Milwaukee Bar Association, May, 2015
- “Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution in Wisconsin,” Business Torts (Chapter 1), (Pinnacle, 3d ed. 2018-2019)
- “Commercial and Consumer Transactions in Wisconsin,” Introduction to Letters of Credit (Chapter 5) (Pinnacle, 2d ed. 2019-2020)