For over four decades, Chris has been a leader in the fields of water law, land use law, natural resources law, constitutional law, and road and public access law. He has extensive litigation experience at the administrative, district court and appellate levels (including 21 Idaho Supreme Court cases).
Best Lawyers in America has named him “Lawyer of the Year” 11 times in the fields of water, land use, and natural resources. Three times, Super Lawyers placed Chris in the “Top 100 Lawyers” list for the Mountain West. Chris has played a significant role in shaping legislation and is described in the Idaho Yearbook Directory as “centrally located in the world of Idaho public affairs” and “a key figure in Idaho water law.”
Chris serves on the Board of Advisors to the National Judicial College’s “Dividing the Waters” water law program for judges. For two decades, he served as President of the Idaho Environmental Forum. He served for five years on the Board of Directors of Opera Idaho. His clients include cities, counties, private municipal water providers, Fortune Ten companies, energy companies, food producers, mining companies, and land developers.
Before joining Givens Pursley in 1991, Chris practiced natural resources law with the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, D.C. and later taught water law and negotiation at the University of Colorado Law School’s environmental law clinic.
Chris earned his law degree, cum laude, from the University of Michigan in 1981. He earned is A.B. degree from the same university with high honors in economics, Phi Beta Kappa, James B. Angell Scholar, and Osterweil Prize in Economics.