Irons, Ben G

Chris Smart joined the firm as counsel in July 2005. He specializes in real estate (from simple matters to complex real property acquisitions, including valuations and due diligence). He has extensive experience, as well, with contracts, bankruptcy, foreclosures and other debt collection, ordinance preparation and civil litigation, and he has considerable and developing experience with environmental, zoning and land use matters.

Chris graduated as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar from Columbia Law School, J.D. 1988, where he was awarded the E.B. Convers Prize for the best original essay by a member of his graduating class and where he published an article in the Columbia Business Law Review on the societal effects of corporate takeovers. Chris received his undergraduate education from Arizona State University, B.S., Finance, Summa Cum Laude, 1985. As an undergraduate, he earned membership in the academic fraternities of Beta Gamma Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi and Alpha Lambda Delta and was appointed to represent the university on the Arizona Students Association.

After graduating from Columbia, Chris Smart clerked for the Honorable James W. Meyers at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California and on the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel. He spent the next four years as an associate in the San Diego office of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, where he represented financial and corporate clients and creditors committees extensively in collection, foreclosure and bankruptcy matters. He spent the next seven years as an associate and counsel at the Washington D.C. office of Arent Fox, where he continued his bankruptcy and foreclosure practice while developing extensive transactional experience in the acquisition of real estate assets throughout the United States, representing private equity funds and investment banks (notably, Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds, sponsored by Goldman Sachs) in their investment activities. Since joining the firm, Chris has managed real estate due diligence for the acquisition of the Burke Mountain Ski Area, managed complicated litigation involving water rights, subdivisions, environmental and other real estate matters, and prepared municipal water, wastewater, zoning and cell tower ordinances.

Chris is a member of the American and Vermont Bar Associations and has earned admission to the State Bars of Vermont, California, Virginia and to the Bar of the District of Columbia. He has also been admitted to practice before the highest courts in each of those states, as well as the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the United States District Courts for the District of Arizona, the Central, Eastern and Southern Districts of California, and the District of Maryland, and the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He has conducted professional seminars on bankruptcy, foreclosures and title insurance.

Christopher Smart served two years on the Montpelier City Council and currently serves as a commissioner on the Montpelier Historic Preservation Commission and a director on the Montpelier Heritage Group, engaging in land use advocacy. He has co-chaired a monthly discussion group at Montpelier's Kellogg-Hubbard Library since 2001. He has completed locally-recognized renovations of his old home and an apartment building, which he manages.