Christopher P. Beall
Whether a crisis is political, constitutional, or proprietary, Christopher Beall handles the fast-paced litigation with calm, incisive skill, having weathered numerous hard-fought legal battles over a 25+-year legal career, running the gamut from litigation in Colorado and before the United States Supreme Court over access to Colorado’s presidential primary ballot to a copyright case with more than two thousand individual copyright claims. Chris’ in-court, on-his-feet lawyering and his “scary smart” (a client’s comment) ability to cut through legal complexities has served clients ranging from governors to jewelry designers.
Chris’ practice is unusual in its breadth, both topically and geographically. A long-time First Amendment lawyer who has represented broadcasters, publishers, journalists, radio talk show hosts, and even protesters at a national political convention, Chris also handles copyright and trademark matters for clients ranging from hip hop moguls to button-down book publishers. Chris also represents individuals seeking to challenge government policies or regulations, ranging from hepatitis-C treatment of state prisoners to trespassing charges against journalists covering direct-action environmental protests. Chris is admitted to the bars in both New York and Colorado, and he practices in federal courts from Austin to Chicago, Brooklyn to Grand Junction.
For six years, Chris served in Colorado state government, first for two years as the Deputy Attorney General in charge of the Business and Licensing Section of Attorney General Phil Weiser’s administration. In that role, Chris led a team of more than 40 lawyers representing the State of Colorado in civil matters involving professional licensing, fraud (securities, insurance, real estate, and financial), and ethics charges, as well as civil rights protections in matters of public accommodation. In 2021, Chris was appointed Deputy Secretary of State by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, holding the number two position in her office for four years, responsible for the operation of not only the state’s elections but also the registration and regulation of corporate filings, charities, lotteries, bingo halls, notaries publics, and the entirety of the state’s publication of administrative rules. In his role as Deputy Secretary of State, Chris issued more than 200 quasi-judicial final agency decisions in campaign finance and lobbyist cases, and he was the agency’s hearing officer for more than a dozen rulemaking proceedings.
Prior to his public service, Chris was a partner with two large national law firms, as well as a First Amendment litigation boutique. In private practice, Chris has tried patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, First Amendment retaliation, defamation, and disability accommodation cases, and he has represented publishers, broadcasters, and individual journalists in public access matters ranging from suits to invalidate secret votes by public bodies to obtaining access to the recordings of secret meetings of public officials. In 2008, the ACLU of Colorado selected Chris for its Edward Sherman Award in recognition of Chris’ pro bono work on behalf of demonstrators at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, and in 2009, the Colorado Press Association selected Chris for its “Friend of the First” award in recognition of his work on public access matters for Colorado’s press.
For more than fifteen years, Chris also has taught at the Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver, presenting the law school’s courses on media law, copyright law, and trademark law. In 2025, Chris began also teaching in DU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, presenting the journalism department’s media law courses for undergraduates and graduate students.
Chris came to his work on behalf of content producers after ten years as a journalist, starting as a cub reporter on the night police beat in Las Vegas, Nev., for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and continuing later as the bureau chief in Newport, R.I., for the Providence Journal-Bulletin.
Chris graduated summa cum laude and Order of the Coif from Duke Law School, and he holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from Yale University. Chris clerked for the Hon. David M. Ebel on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. He has held leadership positions with volunteer lawyer organizations for artists, and in private practice, he volunteers as a cooperating attorney for the ACLU. Chris served as chairman of the judicial performance commission in his home county in Colorado, and during his time in Rhode Island, he was a leader of his local in The Newspaper Guild, AFL-CIO.
Chris claims descent from Danish pioneers who settled the Eastern Plains of Colorado in the 1880s and Scottish mariners who immigrated to Annapolis, Maryland, in the 1840s, but his father’s career in the Navy took him from Sasebo, Japan, during the Vietnam War and to Alameda, Calif., during the first Persian Gulf Crisis, and 18 other places in between. Chris and his wife have one daughter, and they are the sometimes-frazzled dog-parents of a rambunctious rescue from Retriever Rescue of Colorado (RROC).
Bar Admissions
Colorado, 1997
New Mexico (inactive), 2001
New York, 2010
Court Admissions
U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Court of Appeals – Second, Third, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits
U.S. District Courts – Colorado, New Mexico, Northern District of Illinois, Western District of Texas, and all districts in New York
Colorado State Courts
New York State Courts