Christopher S. Brinkman

Chris Brinkman practices in the firm's Business Representation & Transactions Group with a concentration in venture capital transactions, start-ups & growth companies, securities, and mergers and acquisitions.

Chris frequently serves as outside general counsel to start-up companies and venture-backed companies, and is experienced in guiding such companies and their founders through the various phases of development. He has specific experience in business formation and planning, intellectual property protection, issuing equity-based incentives to service providers, seed-stage and venture capital financings, and exit transactions. Chris also advises venture capital funds and their managers through fund formations, negotiations with portfolio investments, and fund dissolutions.

In his practice, Chris strives to be an effective partner to all clients by not only providing sound legal advice, but by assisting clients in developing the practical steps needed to achieve their goals. He has experience advising both private and public companies with a variety of corporate and securities related matters.

Chris serves as an advisor in various entrepreneurial programs. He frequently serves as a supervising attorney for the University of Cincinnati College of Law’s Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic where he supervises law students in counseling start-up companies, and he has provided business law lectures to MBA students in the University of Cincinnati’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business. In law school, Chris was a fellow with The Ohio Innocence Project where he developed a passion for achieving improvement to and fairness in the criminal justice system, and he continues to dedicate a portion of his practice to pursuing post-conviction relief for those claiming innocence.   

Chris earned his J.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 2015. He earned his B.S. from Indiana University in 2009.