Chris graduated from Harvard College in 1977 and from the University of Maine Law School in 1982. He has been admitted to practice in Maine and the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine since 1982. He is also admitted to the bar of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Chris has received the highest rating (“AV”) from Martindale-Hubbell for professional excellence. Chris has also been listed for many years in New England Super Lawyers for his work in Alternative Dispute Resolution and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for ADR (since 2007) and for personal injury litigation (since 2010). Best Lawyers has named him “Lawyer of the Year” for personal injury litigation, in one year for his representation of defendants and in another year for his representation of plaintiffs, as well as the same honor for his ADR work.
From early in his practice, Chris’ peers have asked him to mediate and arbitrate cases, and he has served as a neutral in well over 2,000 matters. Many of those cases have involved personal injury claims, but they have also involved business, real estate, probate, and construction disputes, as well as intensely emotional matters involving alleged abuses of personal and professional relationships.
Chris has tried well over one hundred civil jury trials, for plaintiffs and defendants, with verdicts in all of Maine’s sixteen counties. He has frequently argued cases before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and before the First Circuit Court of Appeals. The Maine superior courts have selected him to serve as a discovery master in complex commercial litigation and to mediate contentious civil litigation.
Chris enjoys identifying the key issues in a dispute, outlining the strategy to obtain the best possible result for his clients, and then executing the strategy, whether that leads to settlement or trial. His practice is wide-ranging. In a recent six-week period, he represented an insured in a dispute over a professional liability insurer’s duty to defend in the First Circuit, argued on behalf of a group of contractors against the dismissal of their class action suit against a major utility, obtained a defense verdict in a dispute between neighbors over easement deeds, and mediated the settlement of a dispute arising from a forged will (involving six litigants and eight attorneys).
Chris is eager to analyze the next case in the door, but also looks forward to the next chance to hike, run, bike, ski, and golf – and to the next Boston sports championship.
