Trisha M. Rich

Trisha Rich is a litigator, trial attorney and one of the country's foremost lawyers working in the area of legal ethics, professional responsibility, the business of law and the regulation of the legal profession.

Ms. Rich brings nearly two decades of broad experience to assist all types of clients in navigating complex business and commercial disputes. She has served as lead or co-lead in more than a dozen trials and arbitrations and has extensive experience representing clients in administrative proceedings. Ms. Rich's litigation experience includes high-stakes matters involving business torts, commercial disputes, contracts, employment matters, negligence and myriad other civil matters. Additionally, Ms. Rich leads Holland & Knight's national Legal Profession Team and regularly counsels lawyers, law firms, in-house legal departments, legal technology companies, investors and other stakeholders regarding the regulation of the practice of law.

Ms. Rich is the first vice president of the Chicago Bar Association and will become president of the organization in June 2026. She is also a past president of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, the nation's largest bar association for legal ethicists and professional responsibility lawyers.

Trish is a problem solver, practical thinker, and always has an idea (or two) on how to help our business. She delivers high quality legal advice across many areas and her partnership is critical to my ability to manage risk, big and small, across a global business. Trish is always my first call and my most trusted advisor.

– Current Client, 2025

In her legal ethics and legal regulation practice, Ms. Rich is a nationally recognized leader. Her experience in this space includes extensive work in emerging areas of "New Law," including litigation financing, alternative business structures (ABSs) and the regulation of the business of law. She has significant experience and is a market leader in representing both law firms and investors in structuring law firm/management service organization (MSO) partnerships.

Ms. Rich is often called upon to serve as outside general counsel to law firms, advising on all types of risk management, legal ethics and legal regulatory matters, including complex conflicts and privilege matters, internal investigations, partnership formations and breakups, and law firm data breaches and security. She regularly handles lawyer and law firm litigation, including partnership disputes, disciplinary proceedings, legal fee disagreements, and sanctions and disqualification motions, among other issues. Ms. Rich also serves as an expert witness in the legal ethics and regulatory space.

Trish is the consummate legal professional. She is responsive, attentive, personable, accountable, and she is a creative legal thinker. Those traits coupled with her depth of knowledge and experience make her an ideal advisor to any sophisticated enterprise. As the head of our in-house legal department, I consider Trish an essential aspect of our operation.

– Current Client, 2025

Ms. Rich has often been recognized for her work, including being named repeatedly to Crain's Chicago Business Notable Litigators and Trial Attorneys, Thomson Reuters Stand-Out Lawyers and Illinois Super Lawyers, as well as being designated as a National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) Master Advocate in 2023. In 2021, Law Bulletin Media named Ms. Rich among the Top 50 Women in Law, and in 2018, she was recognized in Crain's Chicago Business as a 40 Under 40, the only practicing attorney recognized that year.

Ms. Rich sits in Holland & Knight's Chicago and New York offices and serves as the Chicago office's Professional Responsibility Partner. She has taught legal regulation and professional responsibility law at a number of law schools, including in her current appointment as an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law. Ms. Rich is a frequent speaker, lecturer and author on many legal regulation and ethics topics. She is often sought out for media contributions related to legal regulation and has been cited or quoted in many publications, including in The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, Financial Times, Reuters, Bloomberg Law and others. She is the author of Practical Ethics, the ethics column in the Chicago Bar Association's magazine. In addition to her bar service, Ms. Rich has active leadership roles in a number of other legal and community organizations, including serving in leadership on the Illinois Judicial Ethics Committee, where she was one of the authors of the 2023 Illinois Code of Judicial Conduct.

Prior to practicing law, Ms. Rich taught practical and theoretical ethics at two universities.