Chris counsels and represents developers and other landowners in a broad range of complex litigation, appellate, transactional, and administrative matters involving zoning, eminent domain, inverse condemnation, platting, permitting, land use, annexation, landlord/tenant, drainage, historic preservation, constitutional law, fair housing, open records, open meetings, and other property and regulatory matters. Our firm does not represent residential tenants, however. Before joining Miklos Cinclair, Chris was an assistant city attorney for the City of Dallas for almost 27 years, including serving as first assistant city attorney for almost 10 years and interim city attorney for five months. His primary responsibilities as first assistant included supervising all Dallas’ civil litigation and criminal prosecutions and working on special projects. In his last year with Dallas, it had the second lowest average litigation cost per resident of the 10 largest cities in the nation during the previous three years. Since joining Miklos Cinclair, Chris has: (1) filed two lawsuits challenging a Dallas suburb's parkland exaction ordinance as excessive and obtained a $2,053,695 fee reduction in one case and a reimbursement of $350,400 in the other; (2) persuaded a Dallas suburb's officials to reverse a planning department's decision and allow a substance abuse treatment center; and (3) convinced the Dallas board of adjustment to reverse the building official's decision to revoke a building permit. Chris has favorably resolved numerous federal and state lawsuits through trial and mediation. He also has successfully handled appeals in multiple appellate courts.
Pro-Bono Activities
Chair, Legal Ethics Committee, Dallas Bar Association, 2025-Board of Directors, Fair Park First, 2021-Board of Trustees, Preservation Dallas, 2019-2025Board of Directors, Gateway of Grace, 2018-Chair, Government Law Section, Dallas Bar Association, 2010City of Plano Heritage Commission, 1999-2002Chair, National Alliance of Preservation Commissions, 1999-2001
Past Positions
Dallas City Attorney’s Office
First Assistant City Attorney (including supervisor of all litigation undertaken by the City Attorney’s office)Interim City Attorney for the City of Dallas Published Works
Author, Laws Affecting the Restoration and Preservation of Historical Buildings, 15 CONSTRUCTION LAW J. 37 (Winter 2019)Speaker, Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick: Tips for Getting Your Client’s Project Through the Development Maze, Dallas Area Real Estate Lawyers Breakfast Discussion Group, Dallas, TX, 2018Author & speaker, Obtaining Damages for an Illegal Demolition of a Landmark: a Dallas Case Study, National Preservation Law Conference, National Trust for Historic Preservation and Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC, 2017Author & speaker, Hot Topics in Land Use Law, 19th Annual Land Use Conference, University of Texas School of Law, Round Rock, TX, 2015Author, Asking for Trouble When Turning History Into Rubble: How Dallas Razed Cain, LOCAL VIEWPOINT, State & Local Government Law Section, Federal Bar Association (Winter 2012)Author & Speaker, Historic Preservation Law, Best Practices for Public Sector Lawyers Seminar, Government Lawyers Section of State Bar of Texas, Austin, TX, 2011Co-speaker, Eminent Domain and Regulatory Takings, Annual Conference, Texas Chapter of American Planning Association, Addison, TX, 2007Author, Historic Preservation Concerning Private Property, 30 THE URBAN LAWYER 405 (Spring 1998) (cited as one of four best articles on historic preservation in 1998 by Stuart L. Deutsch & A. Dan Tarlock, Annual Survey of Land Use Literature, 22 ZONING & PLANNING LAW REPORT 56 (June 1999))Speaker, Sign Regulation and the First Amendment, Challenges Facing Local Governments, Dallas Chapter of Federal Bar Association, Dallas, TX, 1994HonorsBest Lawyers in Dallas (land use/zoning), D Magazine, 2021-2022Texas Verdicts Hal
