Christopher R. Riano

Christopher R. Riano is a constitutional, public law and regulatory attorney in Holland & Knight's New York office. With significant regulatory experience at the local, state and federal levels, Mr. Riano's practice focuses on providing strategic risk analysis and guidance to senior executives from Fortune 100 and 500 companies, concentrating on the public and private sectors, including family offices, closely held business and large nonprofit organizations, especially institutions of higher education. Mr. Riano helped to pioneer the current merger and acquisition model used by institutions of higher education in New York, and he is frequently asked for guidance on a range of issues faced by colleges and universities around the country.

As a former assistant counsel to the governor of New York, 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 trusted leader and advocate in public and administrative law, with public- and private-side experience in highly regulated industries. Mr. Riano has counseled highly regulated clients on complex national and international regulatory matters, including before numerous city, state and federal agencies, particularly in emerging areas of law and regulation. Mr. Riano uses his public service experience to wholistically craft legal, policy and communication strategies for clients, realizing they are usually interrelated to the successful outcome of most projects.

Mr. Riano has significant experience across numerous industries and a wide range of areas, including K-12 and higher education, alcohol beverage law and regulation, gaming law and regulation, government procurement, economic development, energy and the environment, government investigations, state and federal constitutional issues, finance and insurance, ethics compliance, transportation and healthcare.

Mr. Riano also has extensive amicus practice experience at the U.S. Supreme Court. In Kennedy v. Braidwood (2025), he represented a collation of healthcare organizations, bar associations and others as amicus parties supporting access to lifesaving preventative care. 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), worked on representing a trade association in Mark Johnson v. United States (2000) and helped draft the position of several states in the last major 21st Amendment case, Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Association v. Thomas (2019).

In addition to his legal practice, Mr. Riano has taught numerous courses as a lecturer at Columbia University and a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School, and he 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.