Chris has over twenty years of experience in representing energy and mining clients in connection with their litigation, transactional, and every-day contract and legal needs. These clients include oil and gas producers, landowners, non-profit charities, coal mining companies, lenders, and investors.  Chris's primary experience is in litigation and alternative dispute resolution, and he has appeared as lead counsel in cases throughout Colorado and also in Wyoming, Oklahoma, Minnesota, and New York.  He has represented clients in Colorado and federal agency enforcement and permit processes, and has handled proceedings before the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining, and Safety.  Chris is also an experienced transaction attorney with expertise in the business opportunities and challenges in the mineral and energy industries, representing investors and lenders in providing capital to mining and oil and gas operations.  Chris handles surface use agreements, supplier contracts, litigation of commercial disputes, royalty issues, environmental due diligence in real estate and corporate transactions, and the myriad other legal issues that arise in the life of an energy or mining operation.

Chris received his B.A. from Carleton College magna cum laude in 1986 and his J.D. cum laude from Northwestern University School of Law in 1994.  Before law school, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Helsinki.

Chris has written and spoken on a variety of subjects including oil and gas permitting, wetlands case law, and royalty litigation. Chris is the chapter editor of the Law of Federal Oil and Gas Leasing treatise (Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation - Matthew Bender), Chapter 19 (Administrative Law). Chris is qualified to practice in Colorado (state and federal courts) and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.