Chris provides strategic risk management advice backed by his insurance recovery and commercial litigation experience.

Overview

Chris provides pragmatic advice and forceful advocacy in complex commercial litigation and across all matters concerning business insurance coverage. He has pursued and successfully resolved coverage claims involving commercial general liability, directors & officers liability, employment practices liability, errors & omissions liability, pollution liability, crime, cyber, fidelity, and property/business interruption policies.

Chris also has broad commercial litigation experience in fields including complex contract disputes, commercial real estate disputes, business tort litigation, trusts and estates litigation, and product liability claims in state and federal courts.

As a risk management adviser, Chris leverages his litigation experience to help his clients navigate potential issues before claims arise and before coverage litigation becomes necessary. He counsels clients concerning their insurance structure, policy applications, and policy renewals. He negotiates contractual risk-transfer provisions and enforces indemnity and defense claims against third parties and their insurers. He regularly cooperates with liability insurers concerning the defense and potential resolution of pending litigation matters, and he coordinates with defense counsel regarding particularly complex or high stakes litigation.

Chris also counsels companies in connection with insurance coverage issues surrounding insolvency, bankruptcy, receivership, or other financial distress. He advises on insurance coverage and indemnity issues arising from mergers, acquisitions, and other transactional activity, and he negotiates manuscript insurance policy language to address specialized or unique transactional exposures.

Experience

Insurance Recovery

Chris obtained summary judgment on behalf of a food manufacturing client in a dispute concerning coverage for a product contamination claim under commercial general liability policy.

He obtained summary judgment on behalf of a specialty beverage supplier in a coverage dispute concerning liability coverage under a pollution policy for claims relating to a chemical release.

He secured a high-value settlement of a multimillion-dollar dispute with a municipality’s insurer concerning a policy limits demand for a pending tort claim under the Kansas Tort Claims Act.

He has successfully resolved multiple coverage disputes concerning first-party and liability claims arising out of employee thefts, bribery schemes, and other allegedly fraudulent and/or criminal activities.

He secured a high-value settlement of a dispute with a client’s cyber insurer following a ransomware event.

Chris is a member of a team that has worked as insurance coverage counsel on behalf of multiple unsecured creditors committees and helped secure hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance coverage under liability insurance policies spanning several decades.

He successfully resolved a multimillion-dollar property insurance dispute arising from the loss of a building by fire.

He successfully resolved a dispute over coverage for materials under a contractor’s inland marine policy.

Commercial Litigation

Chris secured the dismissal of several counts brought by a foreign financial institution on various contract, quasicontract, and tort theories arising out of the insolvency of a South American grain trading company.

He obtained summary judgment on behalf of a Missouri bank, defeating a multimillion-dollar equitable subrogation claim by a borrower’s surety companies.

He obtained summary judgment against post-acquisition claims alleging that the buyer converted confidential business data.

He helped defeat a bid for preliminary injunctive relief in state court concerning a dispute over restrictive covenants, followed shortly thereafter by a successful resolution of the dispute.

News & Insights

Speaking Engagements

Liability Insurance Basics: Scope and Recurring Issues, July 2019 and July 2021

Publications

"Proving Lost Business Income for Manufacturers Without Clearly Identifiable Lost Sales," published in the ABA's Coverage Magazine, spring 2018

Recognitions

Recognitions

Named to the 2021 and 2022 Best Lawyers in America© "Ones to Watch" List

Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association Pro Bono Champion, November 2020

Professional & Civic Activities

Professional & Civic Activities

American Bar Association

Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association

Nelson-Atkins Museum Friends of Art

University of Virginia Alumni Association

Admissions

  • Missouri
  • Kansas
  • U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas

Education

University of Virginia, J.D., 2015

  • The Journal of Law and Politics, Production Editor
  • Dillard Fellow, Legal Research & Writing Program

University of Virginia, B.A., 2011

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