John George, Class of 1966, graduated with honors from the University of Illinois, where he was an Edmund J. James Scholar and member of Phi Beta Kappa.  John was also a member of the Marching Illini and the First Regimental Band and his senior thesis was awarded the Martha Belle Barrett Prize in history.  John attended graduate school at Columbia University on a President’s Fellowship, receiving his PhD in medieval history in 1976.  He graduated cum laude from the Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.  After practicing law for two years in Boston, John moved to Chicago and is now a partner in Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, a large international law firm with offices in the U. S., Europe and Asia.  John has a national commercial litigation practice, with a special emphasis on representing companies, officers and directors, and outside professionals in civil, criminal, and regulatory investigations, trials and appeals brought under state and federal securities laws.   John’s recent pro bono work has included obtaining political asylum for an Indonesian pastor and his family who had suffered religious persecution in their homeland.  He and his family are members of Trinity Episcopal Church,  where John has served in various lay leadership positions and sings in the choir.  He is a member of the Mid-Day Club and Harvard Club of Chicago.  John is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Law.  In 2004, he was selected to the Leading Lawyers Network in commercial litigation.