Focusing on domestic and cross-border matters in the “middle market,” Chris’s experience spans a number of industry sectors, including financial services, technology, media and real estate. Chris has a unique appreciation for the opportunities and challenges faced by participants in the private equity and venture capital industry, having worked in-house with a private equity firm followed by several years of law firm experience in that space. Additionally, his experience representing investment managers (as well as smaller public companies earlier in his career) allows him to help clients navigate the securities regulation and compliance challenges they face.

Sought out for his experience in forming and structuring a wide variety of private investment funds, joint ventures and holding companies, handling merger and acquisition transactions (for both strategic and financial acquirors), and transactions in the “private capital” market (including offerings, resales and equity compensation matters), clients value his ability to handle complex matters and his responsive, diligent and even-keeled style.

Drawing upon the firm’s expertise in related areas, such as tax, employment, intellectual property, trust & estates, real estate and litigation, Chris often takes a multi-disciplinary approach to provide clients with representation across a broad range of different needs.

Chris has acted as lead counsel or played a prominent role in the following representative transactions:

• Represented Modera Wealth Management, an investment adviser with over $2.3 billion in assets under management, in several acquisitions of regional investment advisers.
• Represented American Media in several acquisitions and divestitures of celebrity and entertainment publications, such as US Weekly, Men’s Journal and In Touch Weekly, as well as adventure sports titles, such as Surfer, Powder and Bike.
• Represented a real estate fund complex with commitments upwards of $670 million in connection with fund formation and ongoing fund counsel matters.
• Represented Onyx Equities with respect to the formation of a commercial real estate and debt fund with commitments upwards of $76 million.
• Represented a registered investment adviser with respect to the formation of a private equity fund to invest in residential mortgage backed securities with commitments upwards of $84 million.
• Represented HR Acuity in connection with a minority growth equity investment from Growth Street Partners, a West Coast based venture capital fund
• Represented a cloud and cybersecurity service provider in connection with its sale to a prominent Canadian-based technology platform company via merger.
• Represented several managing directors formerly from prominent global private equity firms in connection with exiting their positions and transitioning to various mid-market private equity firms.
• Represented a well-known online real estate brokerage portal in the sale of substantially all of its assets to Zillow.
• Represented a NY-based investment adviser in connection with the divestiture of its Florida office and related assets to a newly formed, Florida-based investment adviser run by a former executive.
• Represented the Blossom Hill Group in its joint venture with Bru Textiles, NV, a Belgium based textile manufacturer, for the purpose of establishing a “greenfield” venture into the US.

Chris is a member of the New York State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG). Prior to joining Cole Schotz, Chris was Counsel in Phillips Nizer’s Corporate & Business Law Department.

Chris received his J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law, where he was Associate Editor of the Journal of International Business and Law (formerly, the International Law Digest). While in law school, he was a judicial intern for the Honorable Lawrence M. McKenna in the Southern District of New York. Prior to law school, Chris attended Villanova University, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology.