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.