Chris Campbell founded the Campbell Firm after nearly twenty years as a top litigator and in-house legal executive. He honed his trial skills as a partner at Latham & Watkins, a premier global law firm, navigating bet-the-company litigation and government investigation matters for many of the top technology companies and household brands in the US. He has a track record of success in trial courts across the country, including in California, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Illinois, and has litigated appeals before the Ninth Circuit, D.C. Circuit, and Fourth Circuit, among other courts of appeal. Chris has also defended numerous government investigations with successful results, including investigations by the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, and multiple non-U.S. regulatory authorities. Chris builds cases with precision and an eye toward trial at all times, tackling novel legal issues and always progressing matters toward his client’s objective.

Chris also spent five years building and leading the legal team at Rippling, one of the world’s fastest growing tech startups. Chris scaled his team from one to thirty professionals while counseling multiple regulated businesses, including payments, employment products, insurance, lending, and data products. Chris built a tech-forward, high-velocity legal team to help lead the company as it scaled from $1.5B (Series B) to $16.8B (Series G), with a focus on enabling the business through crisp and actionable advice. 

Chris approaches every problem with the business priorities first, honing in on the practical risks that actually matter to define high-fidelity, scalable solutions. Whether a litigation or general counseling matter, Chris solves the hardest problems to get his clients where they want to go. 

Representative Litigation & Investigation Matters

• Represented a Fortune 100 software company as plaintiff in copyright infringement litigation, resulting in a $30M verdict 
• Second-chaired multibillion dollar breach of contract and false advertising trial between two major technology companies
• Defended a Chief Financial Officer in a civil jury trial against the SEC related to alleged investor fraud
• Represented a “Big 4” railroad in a putative class action and multiple direct actions, which were ultimately resolved in railroad’s favor on summary judgment
• Represented a Fortune 100 semiconductor company in multiple government investigations in the U.S. and abroad
• Represented a leading technology company in a class action resolved on summary judgment, a related criminal investigation that closed with no charges, and multiple foreign competition inquiries

Representative General Counseling Matters

• Built the legal function at Rippling to 30+ professionals across litigation, product legal, commercial, privacy, employment, immigration, corporate, compliance and intellectual property
• Created a scalable and auditable in-house litigation program, used to successfully win a multi-million dollar trademark lawsuit and investigate and file a corporate spying lawsuit against a major competitor
• Drafted and repeatedly revised customer and user terms of service for a best in class B2B SaaS platform, helping the company more than 10x in value with minimal customer redlines
• Negotiated and closed dozens of partnership transactions
• Created and scaled a bespoke internal risk management, counseling, and product launch platform resulting in high fidelity advice while maintaining excellent knowledge management
• Built, launched, and managed Rippling’s patent program, resulting in dozens of patent applications filed and over 30 patents awarded
• Provided risk-based counseling to clients on multiple transactions during government investigations