Chris Manderson

Chris Manderson is a Partner and Chair of the Corporate Department.

Chris Manderson is a highly accomplished mergers & acquisitions and corporate finance attorney, recently honored by the LA Times as a Business Law Visionary and named one of the Top 100 Lawyers of 2025 by the LA Business Journal. With extensive experience advising public and private companies, private equity funds, boards, and executives, Chris specializes in M&A, venture capital, debt and equity financing, distressed and restructuring transactions, and preserving and utilizing Net Operating Loss (NOL) tax assets. He also provides comprehensive guidance on corporate governance matters.

Chris has recently spearheaded several high-profile transactions, including:

• Representing the seller in the sale of California Electronic Asset Recovery to Ancor Capital Partners: This transaction, completed in 2025, enabled a strategic exit for the seller, with Ancor Capital noting the acquisition as a key addition to its portfolio of sustainable technology businesses focused on electronic asset recovery.
• Representing Miso Robotics in a strategic investment by Ecolab Inc.: This multi-million-dollar investment from Ecolab aimed to accelerate Miso’s growth in robotic kitchen automation, with Ecolab’s EVP John Houghtby emphasizing the partnership’s potential to revolutionize food safety and efficiency in the kitchen of the future.
• Representing automation developer Vebu Inc. in a strategic investment by Chipotle, Inc.: This deal highlighted Chipotle’s partnership with Vebu to create the Autocado, a robotic system to streamline avocado processing and enhance restaurant operations.
• Representing infrastructure investor Upwell Water LLC and strategic investor Elah Holdings, Inc. in various strategic transactions: These deals underscore Chris’s expertise in structuring complex investments, leveraging Upwell’s focus on water infrastructure and Elah’s strategy to unlock value through tax assets and sustainable profitability.

Mr. Manderson has spoken at numerous professional conferences on topics such as M&A trends, venture capital financing, and distressed M&A transaction opportunities. His insights have been extensively quoted in Barron’s, Forbes, the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Business Journal, Newsweek, MarketWatch, and others. He has also authored articles discussing innovative strategies in corporate transactions and tax asset preservation, further cementing his reputation as an industry authority.

Chris began his career at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Paul Hastings LLP, representing clients in complex M&A and finance transactions. He later served as Executive Vice President & General Counsel at Real Industry, Inc., where he orchestrated a $525 million acquisition of an aluminum recycling business and a subsequent NASDAQ listing. In the wake of the 2009 Financial Crisis, he reorganized companies preserving over $2 billion in NOL tax assets, including Real Industry, Inc. (formerly Fremont General Corporation, with NOLs over $900 million) and Triad Guaranty, Inc. (with NOLs over $1.1 billion).

His diverse client roster has also included Rock & Republic Enterprises, Inc., Amgen, Inc., Dole Food Company, Seidler Equity Partners, Marwit Capital, Credit Suisse First Boston, Morgan Stanley & Co., and former Olympic Gold Medalist Tyler Hamilton in the Lance Armstrong investigation. Before law school, Chris lived in Japan and traveled extensively throughout Asia. He is a member of the State Bar of California. Outside the office, he is an avid skier and mountain biker, restores vintage 1970s BMWs, and supports Westside German Shepherd Rescue and Angels Bark Dog Rescue.

Reorganization of Triad Guaranty, Inc. and preservation of $1.1 billion Net Operating Loss carryforward in chapter 11 (company side).  All equity interests preserved.

Sale of Bitium, Inc., a cloud-based identity and access management and SSO platform, to Google, Inc.

Series B financing for a drone services company providing aerial photography, videography, mapping & data collection (issuer representation)

Series A and Series B financing for a robotics and artificial intelligence solutions company in the food industry (issuer representation)

Series AA financing for an InsurTech risk modelling and analytics firm (investor representation)

Series Seed financing for a multi-network overlay SDN platform for Wi-Fi connectivity (investor representation)

Carve out of Semantics Manager business from Rogue Wave Software, Inc. (buyer representation)

$525 million carve out of Real Alloy, Inc., the aluminum recycling division of Aleris, Inc. (buyer)

Sale of NABCO, LLC by public company; $87 million purchase price (sell side)

Honors & Recognitions

"Legal Visionaries" by the Los Angeles Times’ third annual Business of Law Magazine, 2023

"Legal Visionaries" by the Los Angeles Times’ fifth annual Business of Law Magazine, 2025

"Top 100 Lawyers" by the Los Angeles Business Journal, 2025

Client Alerts

Publications

Speaking Engagements