Based in Washington, DC, Chris has substantial experience successfully litigating and trying complex, high-stakes cases. He has obtained more than $1.5 billion in verdicts and settlements for clients in federal and state courts across the country, successfully prosecuting numerous antitrust and privacy class actions in court-appointed leadership roles and representing business clients as plaintiffs in high-value contract and business tort disputes.

Quoting feedback from peers and clients, a leading legal publication notes that "Chris is a considered, careful, but relentless advocate" who "is quick on his feet and not afraid to get down into the weeds," while another states that he is "lauded as 'an excellent competition plaintiff lawyer' who is regularly engaged in high-value antitrust proceedings before state and federal courts." 

Chris has been named to the Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Antitrust & Competition Lawyers guide, the Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers guide, and the Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers guide, honored as one of the top plaintiffs’ antitrust lawyers in the Global Competition Review’s Who’s Who Legal: Competition publications, selected to the Best Lawyers in America in the areas of antitrust and commercial litigation, recognized by Benchmark Plaintiff as an Antitrust Litigation Star, and honored as a Washington, DC Super Lawyer.

Chris also is a Fellow of the Washington, DC chapter of the American Bar Foundation. Founded by the American Bar Association in 1952, the ABF is an honorary 501(c)(3) non-profit organization of lawyers, judges, and scholars whose careers have demonstrated outstanding dedication to the welfare of their communities and the highest principles of the legal profession. The ABF seeks to expand knowledge and advance justice through innovative, interdisciplinary, and rigorous empirical research on law, legal processes, and legal institutions. the ABF's membership is limited to one percent of licensed lawyers in each jurisdiction.

Comments from Courts and Clients

Chris is one of the hardest working lawyers I have ever known. The case was a complex contract case spanning 2 countries, 20 years and 2 languages. Through his dogged persistence and attention to detail he unraveled all parts of the case and understood the details of what our opponent had done. We won the case with a substantial jury verdict and judgment. I recommend Chris for any commercial case, especially if it is complex in its nature. 
— George Mallon, Jr., Founder and CEO of Mallon Resources Corporation and Managing Member of GT Resources LLC

I do think the result here was remarkable. This is a case which I think a lot of experienced class action antitrust lawyers turned their back on, others who decided they’d rather do it their own way, and this group of lawyers stuck with it, built this case… This was a matter of the jurors being persuaded by the presentation made at trial, based on copious preparation… And I think that the result in this case in the end was truly exceptional.
— Hon. John Lungstrum, U.S. District Judge, District of Kansas, In re Urethane Antitrust Litigation (July 27, 2016 Hearing)

I’ve heard how counsel have performed, how thoroughly and faithfully and zealously they represented their clients and sought a fair and reasonable outcome….  And that’s important to have skilled counsel. That makes all the difference…. I think counsel can feel very good about themselves professionally, that they’ve served their clients well.
— Hon. Anne Thompson, U.S. District Judge, District of New Jersey, In re Ductile Iron Pipe Fittings Direct Purchaser Antitrust Litigation (May 10, 2018 Hearing)

I was sincere when I said I think both sides have received excellent legal representation in this case.
— Hon. Harry Mattice, Jr., U.S. District Judge, Eastern District of Tennessee, In re Cast Iron Soil Pipe and Fittings Antitrust Litigation (May 23, 2017 Hearing)

I can see why you are a successful attorney. Many of our outside law firms take us for granted a bit and don't communicate regularly so I appreciate this…. It is nice to work with people in whom I have such confidence.
— General Counsel’s office of the University of Utah Health System

Education & Background

American University Washington College of Law, J.D., magna cum laude (Top 10%), 2002
University of Virginia, B.A., 1999
Intern, Hon. Deborah K. Chasanow, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, 2000
Intern, National Criminal Enforcement Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 2001

Admissions & Honors

Fellow, American Bar Foundation (since 2024)
Best Lawyers in America - Antitrust Litigation (2020-2025)
Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Antitrust & Competition Lawyers (2025)
Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers (2021-2024)
Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers (2021-2024)
Global Competitions Review's Who's Who Legal: Competition/Plaintiff-Thought Leader (2023-2025)
Global Competitions Review's Who's Who Legal: Competition (2020-2022)
Super Lawyers - Washington, DC (2024)
Super Lawyers - “Rising Star” Colorado (2016-2017)
Benchmark Plaintiff – “Antitrust Litigation Star” (2013-2015)
Recognized in the National Law Journal's Top 100 Verdicts of 2022: https://images.law.com/media/nationallawjournal/supplements/TVS_NLJ_2022/index.html#p=15
Admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court, Colorado state and federal courts, Washington, DC state and federal courts, Virginia state court and other federal courts

Speaking Engagements & Publications

AI Antitrust Recent Developments: A Roundtable Discussion on Pending Litigation at the Intersection of AI and Antitrust  (California Lawyers Association, Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section - May 2024)
Private Enforcement in the U.S.: An Overview of Leading Cases, Concurrences Journal, Institute of Competition Law (April 2014)
Private Recovery Actions in the United States (Antitrust Review of the Americas, 2010)
Perspectives on the Future Direction of Antitrust (Antitrust, ABA 2008)

Representative Cases & Decisions

In re Visa Debit Card Antitrust Litigation (S.D.N.Y.)

Serving on the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee, Chris leads the firm’s efforts in this nationwide antitrust class action brought by merchants against Visa in the wake of a similar Department of Justice lawsuit. Plaintiffs claim that that Visa has unlawfully leveraged and maintained its dominant position in the debit transaction network market by requiring volume commitments with merchants’ acquiring banks and high-volume merchants and coercing actual and potential competitors not to develop or support competing payment products that otherwise would threaten Visa’s market position and very existence. All of these practices, individually and collectively, have stifled innovation, thwarted competition and allowed Visa to charge merchants supra-competitive fees for debit transactions in violation of federal and state antitrust laws.

In re Extended Stay Hotel Antitrust Litigation (N.D. Cal.)

Chris helps lead the prosecution of this federal antitrust class action alleging price-fixing of extended stay hotel room rentals. Plaintiffs allege that multiple national hotel companies, including Hilton, Extended Stay America, Sonesta, Wyndham, and Hyatt,  facilitated and enabled by leading software service provider IDeaS, have engaged in an ongoing anticompetitive scheme to fix prices and inventory levels of extended stay hotel guest rooms in numerous metropolitan statistical areas through their knowing and intentional use of the same AI-powered pricing algorithm product, which collects and utilizes their confidential business data and other market information, to set room rates.

Cornish-Adebiyi v. Caesars Entertainment, Inc., et al. (D.N.J.)

Chris serves as interim co-lead class counsel in this groundbreaking federal antitrust class action alleging price-fixing in the Atlantic City casino-hotel guest room market. Plaintiffs allege that the major Atlantic City casino-hotels and their corporate parents, facilitated and enabled by software service provider Cendyn (formerly Rainmaker Group), have participated in an anticompetitive scheme by knowingly and intentionally using the same AI-powered pricing algorithm, which collects and utilizes their confidential business data and other market information, to set room rates. This conduct, Plaintiffs allege, constitutes price-fixing in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. While the district court dismissed the consolidated amended complaint, Plaintiffs have appealed this ruling to the Third Circuit, where they have received amicus support from an array of pro-competition non-profit organizations and a group of preeminent antitrust law and economics professors.

GT Resources LLC v. Black Hills Corp., et al. (Colorado State Court)

As co-lead trial counsel, Chris obtained a $41 million jury verdict in Denver County District Court in April 2022 for plaintiff GT Resources against defendant Black Hills Corporation and two of its subsidiaries in connection with a squandered oil and gas concession in Costa Rica. In issuing one of the largest verdicts in the state and one of the 100 largest verdicts in the nation in 2022, the jury found that the actions of one subsidiary violated the duty of good faith and fair dealing owed to plaintiff under the relevant contract and that the parent company and the other subsidiary interfered with the plaintiff's prospective business advantage. Chris examined and cross-examined multiple key fact and expert witnesses, handled significant evidentiary arguments, and played a leading role in forming and executing the trial strategy. (Defendants have appealed the judgment.) For a summary of the trial and related press coverage, please click HERE.

In re Plaid Inc. Privacy Litigation (N.D. Cal.)

Chris serves as co-lead counsel for a proposed nationwide class of consumers alleging that fintech company Plaid violates consumer privacy and computer data protection laws by collecting consumers’ sensitive bank login information through software embedded in a host of apps such as Venmo, Coinbase, Square’s Cash App, and Stripe. The lawsuit alleges that Plaid then uses the credentials to access and capture years of transactions and other confidential data from all of the consumers’ accounts with the bank without consumers’ knowledge or consent. In 2022, the court approved a nationwide class settlement providing $58 million and valuable changes to Plaid’s business that, among other things, improve disclosures about Plaid and its conduct to consumers and give consumers more control over their ability to delete data on Plaid’s systems.

Liquidating Trustee for the Liquidating Trust of Nighthawk Royalties LLC v. Sigma3 Integrated Reservoir Solutions, Inc., et al. (Colorado State Court)

Chris successfully represented the liquidating trustee of a bankrupt exploration and production company against an engineering firm for its alleged gross negligence in connection with oil production forecasting services the company relied upon that led to its demise. Chris led all key aspects of the engagement, including working with the client, managing discovery, drafting all pleadings through summary judgment, deposing the defendants’ key employees, working with experts, and negotiating a favorable confidential settlement.
 

In re Urethane Antitrust Litigation (D. Kan.)

Chris was part of the co-lead counsel team for direct purchaser plaintiffs in an antitrust class action alleging a nationwide conspiracy to fix the prices of chemicals used to make polyurethane foam, a basic component of everyday products such as bed mattresses, car seat cushioning, and furniture cushioning. Four defendants — Bayer, BASF, Huntsman, and Lyondell — settled for a total of $139.5 million, while the case against the fifth manufacturer, Dow Chemical, went to trial. After a four-week jury trial, the jury returned a $400 million verdict for the plaintiffs, which the district court tripled under federal antitrust law to more than $1 billion. This was the largest verdict in the country in 2013, as reported by the National Law Journal, and is believed to be the largest jury verdict rendered for a violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed the judgment. In early 2016, Dow ultimately settled for $835 million while the case was on appeal to the Supreme Court, bringing the total recovery to $974 million – nearly 250% of the damages found by the jury.
 

In re Anadarko Basin Oil and Gas Lease Antitrust Litigation (W.D. Okla.)

Chris was personally appointed co-lead counsel for plaintiffs in a class action alleging that Chesapeake Energy, SandRidge Energy, and a former executive of both companies conspired to rig bids for leases of land held by private landowners in parts of Oklahoma and Kansas. This litigation follows the U.S. Department of Justice’s early 2016 indictment of a co-founder and former CEO of Chesapeake Energy for allegedly participating in this bid-rigging conspiracy. Plaintiffs allege that Defendants illegally conspired to stabilize and depress the price of royalty and bonus payments paid to landowners in the Anadarko Basin oil and gas province — a massive geological formation holding natural gas and oil deposits that includes large parts of Oklahoma and Kansas. Pursuant to this conspiracy, Plaintiffs allege that Defendants communicated about and agreed on prices, allocated particular geographic areas between themselves, and rigged bids for leases of land, lowering acquisition prices across the region and thereby harming the proposed class of landowners. In 2018, the parties signed a settlement agreement resolving the case for $7 million, which the court later approved.
 

In re Dental Supplies Antitrust Litigation (E.D.N.Y.)

Chris was part of the leadership team representing a proposed class of dental practices and dental laboratories. The case alleges that Defendants Henry Schein, Inc., Patterson Companies, Inc., and Benco Dental Supply Company — the three largest dental supply and dental equipment distributors in the United States — fixed price margins on dental equipment, jointly pressured manufacturers to squeeze out competitors, and agreed not to “poach” each other’s employees, in violation of federal antitrust law. As a result of the alleged conspiracy, dental practices and dental laboratories may have paid artificially inflated prices for many kinds of dental supplies and dental equipment, from consumables like gauze and cement to big-ticket equipment like chairs and x-rays. In 2018, the parties signed a settlement agreement resolving the case for $80 million, which the court later approved.
 

In re Plasma-Derivative Protein Therapies Antitrust Litigation (N.D. Ill.)

Chris was part of the co-lead counsel group for direct purchaser plaintiffs alleging a conspiracy to reduce the supply and increase prices of IVIG and Albumin — life-saving therapies derived from blood plasma. He and his colleagues represented named plaintiff The University of Utah Health System as well as the remaining class members in this matter. The defendants were CSL Ltd., CSL Behring, Baxter Healthcare and the Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (the trade association the manufacturer defendants controlled). Chris played an integral role in the investigation and filing of the first complaint in the country in this matter. Following numerous depositions across the globe and the filing of plaintiffs’ opening class certification motion and expert report, Chris and his team obtained settlements with all defendants totaling $128 million.
 

In re Cast Iron Soil Pipe & Fittings Antitrust Litigation (E.D. Tenn.)

As a key member of the co-lead counsel team, Chris represented a plumbing distributor and a putative class of direct purchaser plaintiffs against the two largest soil pipe and fittings manufacturers in the country (McWane Inc. and Charlotte Pipe & Foundry) and the trade association they controlled (Cast Iron Soil Pipe Institute) in a lawsuit alleging that the defendants engaged in a nationwide price-fixing conspiracy. Following the completion of extensive fact discovery, he helped obtain a $30 million settlement from all defendants for the direct purchaser class, which the court approved in 2017.
 

In re Ductile Iron Pipe Fittings Antitrust Litigation (D.N.J.)

Chris played a leading role in representing a putative class of direct purchaser plaintiffs in a price-fixing case against the three largest manufacturers of ductile iron pipe fittings — McWane Inc., Sigma Corporation, and Star Pipe Products — and a monopolization case against McWane for excluding significant competition in the domestic ductile iron pipe fittings market. Settlements of greater than $17 million were approved in 2017 following the completion of fact and expert discovery and briefing on class certification.