As a Director on our In-House Counsel Recruiting team in Boston, Christopher Williams assists public and private corporations, nonprofits, government agencies and higher education institutions with identifying exceptional legal and compliance professionals to build or enhance their teams. Chris has a track record for delivering results on high stakes matters for multinational organizations, and with his many years of experience as a GC/CLO and Head of Compliance, Chris brings a nuanced and detailed understanding of the needs of our clients in building high-performing legal and compliance leadership and support teams.
Born and raised in Boston and a serious Boston sports fan, Chris also has strong personal and familial roots in the South and West of the United States as well as several parts of Europe. In his downtime, Chris enjoys traveling, being active and singing songs from Hamilton with his daughter while driving to volleyball practices and tournaments.
Chris began his legal recruiting career with Major, Lindsey & Africa in September 2022 after serving as the chief legal officer, head of compliance and corporate secretary for LEAF4LIFE, Inc. There he served as the principal legal and compliance support to the organization and to related affiliates and subsidiaries. He also led effort to prepare the organization for potential IPO.
Chris began his legal career as a law firm associate, working for Bingham McCutchen LLP, Goulston and Storrs P.C. and Goodwin Procter LLP before moving in-house. Initially, he focused on litigation before turning to a transactional practice with an emphasis in finance. His first in-house role was as general counsel and SVP of partner operations for BET Information Systems. There, Chris managed the full spectrum of legal activities for BET, nSphere, Survey.com and Opinion S.A.
Fluent in French and familiar with the culture, he then moved over to Paris based Linedata Services Inc. to become legal counsel for the Americas. In that role, he managed all regional legal affairs and regulatory compliance matters (FINRA/SEC compliance) in the region and supported the global GC and CFO in a broad scope of matters. Chris then decided to explore a new industry and became senior counsel corporate for Sunovion Pharmaceuticals (a US based subsidiary of Japan based Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd). Working closely with the general counsel, he supported corporate transactions, business development, HR, compliance, IT and data privacy. Chris then moved to of LFB USA, rEVO Biologics and later added LFB American Plasma (all US based subsidiaries of French enterprise LFB S.A.) to lead their legal and compliance functions as VP, general counsel and compliance officer.
Chris has been involved in several community based and international non-profit organizations as both a volunteer and board member.
Georgetown University Law Center: J.D.
Emory University: B.A., International Studies
2021 Mass Lawyer’s Weekly “In-House Leaders in the Law” Honoree
Emory University Sports Hall of Fame Inductee (2004)
