Christopher R. Riano

Christopher R. Riano is a constitutional and public law attorney in Holland & Knight's New York office. Mr. Riano has significant regulatory experience at the state and federal levels. His practice is national and international and focuses on working with senior executives from Fortune 100 and 500 companies, concentrating on the public and private sectors including family offices, closely held business, banks, and large nonprofit organizations. Mr. Riano has experience in the business and corporate governance of organizations, including executive leadership and financial management, as well as the development of corporate governance and strategic risk analyses on behalf of boards and C-suite executives.

As the former general counsel to the New York State Liquor Authority, a former administrative law judge and former commissioner of the New York State Gaming Commission, Mr. Riano is a leader in public and administrative law, with special emphasis in highly regulated industries. Mr. Riano instituted the first commercial compliance agreements used by the New York State Liquor Authority, was among the first counsels in national history to levy negotiated million-dollar fines at each tier of the alcohol beverage control industry, and launched a nationwide product line for a major household brand name. Mr. Riano has counseled highly regulated clients on complex national and international regulatory matters, including before numerous state and federal agencies, particularly in emerging areas of law and regulation. Mr. Riano is one of a few lawyers in the country to have public- and private-side experience in multiple highly regulated industries.

In addition, Mr. Riano served as the former assistant counsel to the governor of New York, where he was responsible for the governor's legal portfolio for education throughout the state. He is keenly aware of the special role that state and local law can play in the education space and has taught a course on higher education law at Columbia University for more than a decade. With this experience, Mr. Riano has assisted in major in-state/out-of-state university merger and acquisitions at the state and federal levels and advised and wrote several university rules of conduct policies across the country. Mr. Riano has done so not only in his role as an attorney, but also as a faculty member, giving him keen insight into the dynamics required in shared governance within the context of a university environment.

Mr. Riano also has extensive amicus practice experience at the U.S. Supreme Court. In Kennedy v. Braidwood, he represented a collation of healthcare organizations, bar associations and others as amicus parties supporting access to lifesaving preventative care (2025). He was an amicus party in United States v. Skrmetti (2024), represented the New York State Bar Association as an amicus party in 303 Creative v. Elenis (2023) and Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021), and helped draft the position of several states in the last major 21st Amendment case, Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Association v. Thomas (2019).

Mr. Riano has also taught numerous courses as a lecturer at Columbia University and a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School, and is frequently asked to speak at national conferences and events on constitutional law, public law and the regulatory state.

Mr. Riano also is an award-winning author and scholar in constitutional law. In 2021, he received the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association for his book, Marriage Equality: From Outlaws to In-Laws, co-authored with William N. Eskridge Jr. of Yale Law School. The book, which presents the 50-year history of the marriage equality movement, was hailed as the "magnum opus" of the field by The New York Times.

Previously, Mr. Riano served as the president and CEO of the Center for Civic Education, a nonpartisan civic and constitutional law education organization dedicated to promoting democratic principles and actively engaged in the practice of civic engagement in the U.S. and around the globe.