Christopher M. Kise is a partner with Foley & Lardner LLP. With a wide range of high-profile litigation experience, he serves as co-chair of the Appellate Practice and is a member of the Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution, and Government Enforcement, Compliance & White Collar Defense Practices and the Energy Industry Team.
Mr. Kise has enjoyed an extensive legal career serving as a confidante and chief legal and policy advisor to Florida's Governor, as Florida's Solicitor General (the State's top litigator), as a law professor and as an attorney in private practice.
As Counsellor to Florida's Governor Charlie Crist, Mr. Kise provided advice and leadership and directed implementation of administration priorities on key statewide issues, including automobile and property insurance, energy, telecommunications, transportation, health care, prescription drugs, public finance, the environment and climate change.
As Solicitor General, serving under then Attorney General Crist, he handled the State's major trial and appellate litigation involving a wide variety of subject matters, including electric utilities, telecommunications, the healthcare and pharma sector, and significant constitutional issues.
As a law professor, Mr. Kise held the Richard Ervin Eminent Scholar Chair at the Florida State University College of Law, teaching courses in Appellate Advocacy and White Collar Criminal Practice.
In the private sector, Mr. Kise has concentrated his practice in the areas of major appeals, complex corporate litigation, significant state and federal white collar defense matters, constitutional law, and representation of regulated industries.
Mr. Kise has argued successfully three times before the United States Supreme Court and filed briefs in more than a dozen cases before the high court. He has also handled many significant cases before the Florida Supreme Court and the Florida Public Service Commission. His litigation practice has extended throughout the United States representing individuals, private and public corporations and government entities in major trial and appellate matters.
In recognition of his experience, Mr. Kise has been Peer Review Rated as AV® Preeminent™, the highest performance rating in Martindale-Hubbell's peer review rating system.
Mr. Kise is a 1990, magna cum laude, Order of the Coif graduate of the Florida State University College of Law, where he served as managing editor and articles editor of the Law Review. He received his undergraduate business degree in accounting from the University Of Miami in 1986.
Representative Cases:
· Lawrence v. Florida, 127 S.Ct. 1079 (2007)
· Day v. McDonough, 126 S.Ct. 1675 (2006)
· Gonzalez v. Crosby, 125 S.Ct. 2641 (2005)
· Crist, et al v. Holmes, 919 So.2d 392 (Fla. 2006)
· American Home Assurance Co. v. National R.R. Passenger Corp., 908 So.2d 459 (Fla. 2005)
· State v. Espindola, 894 So.2d 924 (Fla. 2005)
· AFL v. Hood, 885 So.2d 373 (Fla. 2004)
· Florida Dept. of Children & Families v. Sun Sentinel, Inc., 865 So.2d 1278 (Fla. 2004)
· State v. City of Clearwater, 863 So.2d 149 (Fla. 2003)
· Florida v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 357 F.Supp.2d 1313 (N.D.Ala. 2005)
· State v. Tenet Healthcare Corporation, 420 F.Supp.2d 1288 (S.D.Fla. 2005)
· Virgin Islands Housing Authority v. Coastal General Constr. Services Corp., 27 F.3d 911 (3d Cir. 1994)
· In re: Paramount Payphones, Inc., 256 B.R. 341 (Bnkr. M.D.Fla. 2000)
· Arnold D. Palmer v. WDI Systems, Inc., 588 So.2d 1087 (Fla. 5th DCA 1991)