Christopher E. Adams

Partner

Chris Adams focuses his practice on education law, commercial litigation, and appeals. Chris represents more than 15 charter schools and networks in Georgia on topics including authorization, funding, governance, personnel, enrollment, discipline, and contract negotiations. Chris also handles complex litigation and appeals involving constitutional law, business torts, contracts, trade secrets, and False Claims Act cases.

404-888-9545adams@khlawfirm.com

Practice Areas

Background

Education

  • Emory University School of Law, Atlanta, Georgia, 2007, J.D.
    • Woodruff Scholar
    • Top 5% of Class
    • Order of the Coif
    • Emory Law Review, Articles Editor
  • Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, 2000, B.A. Political Science & Environmental Studies

Admissions

  • State Bar of Georgia, 2008

Professional Associations & Memberships

  • Atlanta Bar Association, Member
  • Atlanta Council for Younger Lawyers
  • State Bar of Georgia, Member
  • Young Professionals for Education Equity, Member
  • Walton Family Foundation Grant Review Committee, Member

About Chris

Chris’s work on behalf of charter schools has included:

  • Helping multiple charter schools to negotiate substantial additional funding from their local districts
  • Representing education service providers and charter schools in negotiations surrounding management agreements, leases, and other contracts
  • Helping multiple schools through the authorization and renewal processes
  • Working with multiple charter schools on enrollment and socioeconomic diversity initiatives
  • Working with charter schools and other stakeholders to help pass a 2015 law that allows charter schools to use “weighted lotteries” to increase access for educationally disadvantaged students

Chris has represented public officials and professors in litigation and before public tribunals. He also works with undergraduate and graduate students and faculty in disciplinary hearings at colleges and universities. An expert on socioeconomic diversity, Chris has written, presented at conferences, and testified before the Georgia legislature regarding this issue. As a former teacher with Teach for America, Chris has served on charter school interview panels for the Atlanta Public Schools, Georgia Department of Education, and the Walton Grant Review Committee. He is a regular guest lecturer on charter schools at Emory University School of Law.

After graduating from Emory University School of Law, Order of the Coif, Chris clerked for the Honorable Julia Smith Gibbons of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and was a litigation associate at a firm in Washington DC.