Barnes & Thornburg wrote a non-infringement opinion for Beverly in the fall of 2003, while at the same time representing Andrews in an unrelated patent litigation.

In January 2003, Barnes & Thornburg absorbed the smaller Chicago firm Lee Mann Smith McWilliams Sweeney & Ohlson. At the time, a couple of Lee Mann attorneys, Dennis McWilliams & Timothy Engling, represented Beverly. As part of its conflicts check for the merger, as the judge in the case put it, "Barnes & Thornburg recognized no conflict between Andrews and Beverley despite the fact that the work McWilliams and Engling performed for Beverly had analyzed Andrew's patents adversely to Andrew."

Barnes & Thornburg had approved Beverly as a new client, without requesting consent from either Andrews or Beverly.

Barnes & Thornburg claimed to the court that conflict had been averted because attorneys working for the respective clients didn't know; ignorance being the excuse. This despite attorneys representing both parties moving into the same Chicago office. And, the judge noted, prosecuting patents for both parties and citing each other's patents as prior art. The office water cooler has retained a psychiatrist to battle loneliness.

Barnes & Thornburg realized there was a problem only after both Andrews and Beverly approached them for help in the current case. For the current suit in Chicago (Northern District of Illinois), Andrews is represented by Gardner, Carton & Douglas, while Beverly has Sachnoff & Weaver in their corner.