Chris has served as Chief Executive Officer at Harris Beach Murtha, one of New York’s oldest continuously operating full-service law firms, since 2017.
As CEO, Chris partners with more than 500 co-workers, including more than 275 attorneys, to provide high-quality legal and professional services to clients throughout New York, New England and across the United States. In this role, Chris and the Management Committee develop and execute strategies for client-driven growth across 17 offices in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Since Chris’s election as CEO, the firm has opened new offices, launched a subsidiary in cybersecurity/data privacy compliance and added new practices in emerging areas of law such as cannabis.
During his tenure, Chris has focused on enhancing the firm’s collaborative culture, in which attorneys and staff work together to become trusted advisers and innovative problem-solvers for our clients. He has expanded initiatives in support of inclusion and diversity and created new committees to allow associate attorneys and professional staff a voice in the firm’s management. During 2021, he led the firm in a unique virtual celebration of the 165th anniversary of the founding of Harris Beach, as part of the firm’s initiatives to adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a corporate attorney, Chris focuses on sophisticated commercial transactions, banking and commercial financing and general corporate law. He represents business clients and entrepreneurs at all stages of their business development, negotiating and documenting matters, complex organizational documents (e.g., sophisticated shareholder, operating partnership and joint venture agreements) pertaining to business purchases, startups, ongoing business matters, contracts, transactions and sales of businesses. Chris also negotiates and documents commercial loan transactions on behalf of financial institutions and borrowers.