Chris Delfino

Partner

Assistant:
Emily Laufman
elaufman@delfinomadden.com
916.661.5691

Practice Areas

Corporate Law, Higher Education, Intellectual Property, Nonprofit and Tax-Exempt Organizations, Privacy

Chris Delfino has developed a successful practice serving as general and corporate counsel to wide-range of for-profit businesses and non-profit/tax-exempt organizations. Chris advises the boards of directors and officers of a wide-range of organization’s on their corporate governance, fiduciary duties and conflict of interest matters. He also is lead counsel on a wide variety of transactional matters including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate finance and complex commercial agreements. Chris brings business-oriented approaches and solutions to the legal and transactional matters facing his clients. He works hard to understand his clients’ business, goals, strategy and vision. In doing so, Chris has become a trusted advisor and a critical resource for his clients’ management teams.

Chris started his legal career in Washington, D.C. in the General Counsel’s office of the U.S. Department of Commerce working with and assisting the former communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe in their transition from a centrally planned to a market-based economy. This experience taught Chris the value and significance of long-term planning and strategy coupled with the importance of executing the immediate elements of the plan in order to achieve the long-term strategy. In addition, after the experiences negotiating with both the communist country governments and the US Government, there is very little that surprises Chris when it comes to negotiating deals for clients.

Representative Experience

Serves as outside corporate counsel to colleges and universities, advising their Board of Regents and administration on corporate, tax-exempt, compliance and general business matters.
Serves as outside general counsel to one of Northern California’s largest diversified petroleum distribution companies.
Serves as outside general counsel to local convention and visitors bureaus and business improvement districts.
Serves as outside general counsel or corporate counsel to numerous local, state-wide and national youth sports organizations.
Counseled numerous for-profit and non-profit clients’ boards of directors on all matters of corporate governance and non-profit and tax-exempt compliance matters including the proper handling of potential conflict of interest transactions.
Lead counsel on numerous mergers and other combinations of non-profit charitable organizations.
Negotiated wide assortment of complex technology, licensing and services agreements.
Lead counsel for client in serial acquisitions of similarly situated companies.
Lead counsel for borrowers multi-million dollar credit facility.

Professional Affiliations

Professional, Community and Pro Bono Involvement

Chair, Governance Committee and Member, Board of Directors, Downtown Sacramento Partnership
Member, Board of Directors, Impact Foundry
Member, Board of Directors, Ronald McDonald House Charities Northern California
Senior Fellow, Class XIV, American Leadership Forum, Mountain Valley Chapter
Former Chair and Member of Executive Committee and Board of Directors, Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce
Former Member, International Advisory Board, McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific
Former Co-Chair, California State Bar Corporations Committee

Honors and Rankings

Selected to Best of the Bar, Corporate Attorney, Sacramento Business Journal 2013, 2014 and 2015
Selected to Top Lawyers List for Business/Corporate Lawyers, Sacramento Magazine, 2015
Awarded Business Volunteer of the Year, Sacramento Arts and Business Council, 2005

Education

LL.M., The George Washington University Law School, 1996
J.D., University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, 1993
B.A., University of California at Davis, 1989

Bar Admissions

California

News and Publications

Speaking Engagements/Events

2020
Nonprofit/Exempt Organization Client Update and Executive Roundtable: Navigating the New Normal
Delfino Madden
Co-Presenter

2014
Negotiating and Drafting Software Implementation Agreements
Association of Corporate Counsel, Sacramento Chapter
Presenter

2013
Strategies for Maximizing the Board’s Value in a Large Not-for-profit Organization
National Association of Corporate Directors
Moderator

2011
Serving on a Non-profit Board
Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals, Southern California Chapter
Speaker

Conflicts Issues for Business Lawyers
Sacramento Bar Association, Tax Section
Speaker

2008
Mergers, Acquisitions & Joint Ventures in the United States
Madrid, Spain, Spanish-American Chamber of Commerce/PromoMadrid Conference
Presenter

2002, 2003, 2005
How to Form a Non-profit Organization
The Learning Exchange
Speaker

2003
Public International Law
University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law and University of California, Davis School of Law
Guest Lecturer

2002
Ethical and Practical Issues for Lawyers Serving on Non-profit Boards
Sacramento County Bar Association, Business Law Section
Speaker

Association and Philanthropic Foundations
California Society of Association Executives
Speaker

2001
Public International Law
University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law
Adjunct Faculty Member

2000, 2001
Annual Legislative Update of California Business Law
Sacramento County Bar Association, Business Law Section
Panelist

University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court Team
Faculty Advisor

1998
Agreements, Institutions and Functions of the World Trade Organization
U.S. Embassy-Cairo, Egypt
Lecturer

U.S. and International Trade Law and Policy
Kiev State University for Trade and Economics, Kiev, Ukraine
Lecturer

The American University, School of International Service, Washington, D.C.
Professional Lecturer in International Law

Publications

2001
Serving on a Non-profit Board – Are You at Risk for Penalty Taxes?
Business Law Alert
Co-Author

Giving Away the Company: Employee Stock Options and Repricing Considerations
Business Law Alert
Co-Author