Photo 1: Judge Andrew J. Guilford and Judge Alfred C. Harrell, recipient of the 2018 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Tenth Circuit; Photo 2: Judge Andrew J. Guilford and his wife Loreen Guilford

Judge Andrew J. Guilford, who served as OCBA President in 1991, has been recognized with the prestigious 2018 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Ninth Circuit.

The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization’s membership includes more than 31,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in nearly 380 chapters nationwide and more than 100,000 alumni members.

Guilford was especially proud to represent the Orange County legal community at the awards ceremony. He shared that Orrick partner Christina Von der Ahe Rayburn also represented Orange County last year, when she was selected to receive the Sandra Day O’Connor Award for Professional Service by the American Inns of Court. The professional service honor is awarded each year to an American Inns of Court member with ten or fewer years in practice who demonstrates excellence in public interest or pro bono activities.

Guilford has been a United States district judge since 2006. He has sat by designation with the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He is one of six Patent Pilot Program Judges in the Central District of California. He is president of the District Judges Association.

Co-founder and Master of the Bench in the Howard T. Markey Intellectual Property American Inn of Court in Irvine, California, Guilford served as the Inn’s first president from 2013 to 2015. He is an honorary member of the Judge Paul R. Michel IP American Inn of Court, and of the Pepperdine/Strauss American Inn of Court for Dispute Resolution.

Before becoming a district judge, Guilford was a business trial lawyer with Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton for 30 years. He handled a wide variety of cases relating to intellectual property, unfair competition, finance, and professional liability. He was elected a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1992 and teaches a course on trial advocacy at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law.

As a Regent Scholar at UCLA, Guilford received his AB degree in economics summa cum laude in 1972 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his JD degree from UCLA in 1975 and was an associate editor of the UCLA Law Review.