Andrew Gendron is a commercial litigator who has tried over 70 cases to verdict or judgment.

He focuses on civil trials and appeals in jurisdictions across the country. These cases involve complex issues, often including mass consolidations and class actions, in areas such as:

environmental suits;
shareholder class actions;
toxic torts;
fiduciary matters;
corporate-governance disputes;
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) matters; and
product-liability cases.


Mr. Gendron has successfully resolved ten putative or certified environmental or toxic-tort class actions -- including the defeat of certification in three, decertification in two, and withdrawal of class pleadings in two others.

In a case of first impression, Mr. Gendron established the Maryland standard for housing discrimination arising from a refusal of reasonable accommodations.

Representative Clients
Mr. Gendron’s clients include a major commercial bank holding company, a major petrochemical manufacturer, several large chemical and consumer-product manufacturers, a health insurer, and high-net-worth individuals.

Significant Matters
Mr. Gendron recently obtained dismissal of securities-fraud claims on behalf of an early-stage biotechnology company.

Mr. Gendron assisted a petroleum refiner and marketer in environmental matters related to two Maryland sites, which alleged property damage and personal injury on behalf of more than eleven hundred plaintiffs.

He represents clients in disputes related to governance of privately held corporations and partnership disputes.

Mr. Gendron has served on the national counsel team for a manufacturer of prescription pharmaceuticals, and as liaison counsel in tobacco litigation pending in Maryland.

He represented a wholesale food distributor and its corporate parent in litigation involving breach-of-contract and wrongful-termination claims by the distributor’s former chief executive and counterclaims for the executive’s breaches of contract and fiduciary duties.

Mr. Gendron twice successfully defended pigment and paint manufacturers before the Court of Appeals of Maryland.

In a case of first impression, he won a seven-year battle over alleged housing discrimination, with an appellate mandate ordering dismissal of the charges.

Activities
Mr. Gendron is a member of the Board of Trustees of Saint Mary’s Seminary & University. He was co-chair of the 19th and 20th Lawyers’ Campaigns for CollegeBound Foundation, a nonprofit program that helps Baltimore City public school students achieve a post-secondary education. He is also a past chair of the Mission & Planning and Executive Committees, and member of the Finance Committee, of the Catholic Community of Saint Francis Xavier, where he is also a lay youth minister and lector.

Mr. Gendron has served on the boards of other charitable and community organizations such as the Homeless Persons Representation Project, and as a volunteer for Our Daily Bread and Christopher Place.

For several years he was a faculty member for the Maryland Institute for the Continuing Professional Education of Lawyers and the Maryland Institute for Trial Advocacy.