Christopher V. Carani is a partner at the Chicago-based IP law firm of McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Ltd.  He is widely recognized as a leading authority in the field of design law, having litigated, prosecuted, published and lectured in the field for nearly 20 years.  Chris is the current chair of the AIPPI Committee on Designs, and past chair of both AIPLA and ABA Design Rights Committees.  Chris was conferred his J.D. by The Law School at The University of Chicago and holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Marquette University.

Prior to joining McAndrews, Chris served as a law clerk to the Honorable Rebecca R. Pallmeyer at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.  Chris is on faculty at Northwestern University School of Law as an Adjunct Professor teaching IP law.

He is the Editor-in-Chief of the book entitled “Design Rights: Functionality and Scope of Protection.” The book was published in September of 2017 by Wolters Kluwer N.V.

Chris serves on the Advisory Design Council for The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, and is an Ambassador Member of the Industrial Designer’s Society of America.