Chris Whitson

Graphic Artist

He was one of those kids who drove his high school teachers crazy. Maybe not his art teacher. During art classes, Chris Whitson sketched. During history classes, he sketched. During algebra, Spanish, and civics classes… well he burned through a lot of notebooks, a lot of graphite.

But he made it through high school, and after completing undergraduate work at Kendall and his Masters in Illustration at Syracuse University, where he worked with some of the country's most renowned illustrators, he worked for publications and marketing firms before starting his freelance career.

That's when Chris met his first needy lawyer, and experienced what illustrators rarely get to see his art changing peoples' minds. That is, Chris' art wins cases.

Attorneys know that people, and by people we mean juries, remember 10 percent of what they read, 20 percent of what they hear, 30 percent of what they see, but 50 percent of what they see and hear.

Helping juries and judges understand technical, physical, chemical, and mechanical principles behind a new idea, mechanism, or product is absolutely critical to the practice of IP law, but oddly enough, few IP firms have taken on illustration as a core capability within their firms. And that's a fact that drives McGarry Bair attorneys almost as crazy as Chris drove his high school teachers. We're so glad he did.