Christopher M. Egleson

CHRIS EGLESON has built a distinguished nationwide practice as a partner in both the Supreme Court and Appellate and the Commercial Litigation and Disputes groups. He represents clients in California, New York and around the country in appellate and trial courts and in crisis situations.

Chris represents clients in complex multi-jurisdictional and cross-border cases involving intentional wrongdoing and handles the defense of strategic lawfare campaigns. He has deep experience pursuing and advising on claims based on a wide variety of concerted misconduct: fraud, extortion, threats, hacking, corporate espionage, theft of trade secrets, corruption, bribery, conversion, forgery, defamation, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, tortious interference, insider trading, market manipulation, and civil RICO claims, in addition to a range of investment and founder disputes. As an appellate lawyer, Chris has represented clients on appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, in nearly every federal Circuit, and in state courts of appeal from New York and Pennsylvania to Kansas, Colorado and California.

In the trial courts, Chris has represented private equity funds, hedge funds, venture capital funds, search funds, sovereign wealth funds, family offices, insurance companies and their asset management arms, and commercial, investment and merchant banks, and their managers, advisors, founders and senior investment professionals; along with a broad array of clients from high-level domestic and foreign government officials, governmental entities and sovereign states to technology, fintech, and crypto firms.

As a plaintiff-side litigator, Chris has established himself as a formidable tactical advocate for corporate clients in both business disputes and a range of special situations, securing hundreds of millions in settlements and judgments across diverse matters. His recent track record includes securing pre-trial settlements valued in excess of the original suit amounts in three separate cases.

On the defense side, Chris has secured complete dismissals or defense victories on summary judgment in dozens upon dozens of cases. He has disposed of every defense case he has handled through dismissal or other dispositive motions—except for two, and in those he secured a zero-dollar settlement in one and a pennies-on-the-dollar resolution of a nine-figure claim, with no out-of-pocket cost to the client, in the other. In multiple post-trial engagements, he has obtained appellate relief or negotiated settlements that reduced judgments by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Prior to joining Sidley, Chris served as counsel at an international law firm and clerked for the Honorable Norman H. Stahl of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Chris earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he worked for Professors Laurence Tribe, Richard Fallon and Heather Gerken, and served as executive articles editor for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. He received his B.A. from Brown University.

Many of Chris's engagements are confidential. Recent public highlights of Chris's practice include:

• Representing before the U.S. Supreme Court a former government official challenging his federal conviction in connection with the “Bridgegate” affair.
• Defending foreign sovereign entities on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after securing dismissal under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of a fraud and contract action filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. 
• Representing an individual plaintiff pursuing a multi-million dollar claim for defamation damages in New York state court, after securing appellate reversal of the trial court’s dismissal of the client’s claims on forum non conveniens grounds.
• Defending a former prime minister and defense minister of a foreign nation on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, after securing dismissal under the common law of sovereign immunity of claims asserted under the Alien Tort Statute in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
• Representing a parent and a college student in connection with an investigation into the conditions of the student’s admission to college arising out of the Varsity Blues matter and in related academic judicial proceedings.
• Defending a global technology company in post-trial proceedings and on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit challenging a $940 million federal jury verdict.
• Defending a multibillion-dollar asset management firm and their investment professionals from breach of fiduciary duty, tortious interference of contract and other claims arising from a portfolio company investment asserted in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York and in New York State Supreme Court.
• Defending a private equity investment manager on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in proceedings related to an Israeli bankruptcy.
• Defending a multibillion-dollar asset management firm in a London-seat ICC arbitration relating to an emerging market portfolio company.
• Representing a number of investment banks in connection with claims related to investment banking fees.
• Defending a search fund in multidistrict litigation in Texas and Delaware against claims of fraud relating to the sale of a portfolio company and seeking in excess of $100 million in damages.

Chris has represented many clients pro bono in the federal district courts, courts of appeals and in the Supreme Court.