National | December 8, 2020

Lawyers in Real Estate 2020: Howard & Howard’s Chris Cali

Howard & Howard’s Chris Cali is an accomplished attorney and partner at a national law firm, but colleagues say but what makes him special is his ability to relate to his clients and his genuine care for their success. Based in Chicago, Cali focuses his law practice on real estate including sales and acquisitions, leasing, eviction, landlord/tenant dispute resolution, and condominium formations and deconversions. He also acts as real estate co-counsel on litigation matters, including evictions, partitions, actions to quiet title, and breach of contract as well as being outside general counsel to businesses ranging from startups to publicly traded companies.

Cali understands real estate from more than just the pure legal angle: he holds a managing broker license, which is highly unusual for an attorney. This knowledge of how real estate deals work in the “real world” and his understanding of the business from multiple viewpoints makes his advice more practical and makes him more relatable to his clients.

During the pandemic, Cali has spent inordinate amounts of time helping his commercial and multifamily clients navigate the issues arising from the various orders and hurdles added to the process. In leases, he has negotiated on behalf of his clients to protect them from the exposure. But what differentiated him the most was his availability day and night for his clients when there was so much uncertainty and so many questions.

Cali is reportedly skilled at teaching his clients, an aptitude that may stem from his experience in teaching law students. He serves as an adjunct professor at his Alma Mater, The John Marshall Law School, teaching real estate drafting to third-year law students since 2017. He enjoys bringing in guest speakers to help the students understand the practical side of the law.

It’s for these reasons that we named Chris Cali to our inaugural grouping of Lawyers in Real Estate. These are real estate attorneys who have distinguished themselves in both their practice and the larger community.

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).

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