Chris M. Spurr
Of Counsel
cspurr@fwlaw.com
T: (303) 894-4447
Effective representation begins with ensuring I am more than just a lawyer; but rather, after listening intently and understanding a client’s needs, their counsel. Clients benefit from my eye towards consensus-based solutions and ability to anticipate issues, saving resources without compromising the primary objective.
Bio
As a business, privacy, and real estate attorney, Chris routinely navigates complex issues with a pragmatic eye. He thrives as the architect of a deal, resolving the various issues that arise throughout a transaction’s life cycle, and working with his clients to maximize value post-closing. Chris’ ability to anticipate issues and build consensus makes him a particularly effective transactional and compliance attorney.
Currently, Chris’ practice emphasizes transactions with business, data privacy, and real estate objectives that must be achieved in tandem. Many of his recent matters involve mergers and acquisitions with complex regulatory, credentialing, and contingent payment issues, often including private equity investments in health care and other regulated industries. He regularly counsels private equity clients, portfolio companies, family offices, and founding licensed professionals in the formation, acquisition, growth and sale of clinical healthcare practices. Outside of healthcare, Chris routinely handles both buy and sell-side mergers and acquisitions in various other industries such as technology, manufacturing, and hospitality.
Moreover, in a data privacy environment that often lacks extensive legal and regulatory precedent, Chris helps clients synchronize varying requirements under EU and U.S. data protection and privacy laws - finding pragmatic and consensus-based solutions to complex multi-jurisdictional data protection questions. Chris regularly advises clients on implementing protocols and controls in compliance with both domestic and international data protection regulations alike, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Colorado Privacy Act (CPA), and ever-expanding state privacy laws. He also advises on privacy by design, Generative AI, biometrics, analytics and issues implicating e-commerce, consumer protection, marketing and advertising laws. Clients appreciate Chris’ ability to find pragmatic and consensus-based solutions to complex multi-jurisdictional data protection questions. With an ever-increasing regulatory burden on data processing, security, and artificial intelligence, Chris brings valuable clarity to ever-evolving data and technology compliance issues.
In addition to his M&A and data privacy practice, Chris is equally at home advising clients on general corporate affairs related to formation, governance, restructuring, data privacy, commercial contracts, and regulatory compliance. Chris likewise handles his client’s real estate needs, whether incidental to a larger transaction or primary to the objective.
As a former business owner, Chris is uniquely equipped to offer legal strategy grounded in business reality when the letter of the law falls short. Regardless of the industry or transaction, Chris’ ability to view matters through the lens of his client set him apart as an attorney. Whether the deal requires decisive advocacy or a consensus-based approach, Chris never loses sight of a client’s objectives and exhausts all options to deliver the best possible results.
 
Representative Experience
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Serve as primary transaction counsel for businesses in heavily regulated industries; transaction values generally between $5M and $50M, often featuring private equity and contingent real estate, entitlement, and business components.
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Drafted M&A documents, including asset purchase agreements, security agreements, promissory notes, nondisclosure agreements, and settlement statements for numerous business transitions. Serve as lead transaction counsel on business sales to with complex credentialing and regulatory requirements.
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Advised e-commerce companies in creating and updated privacy policies, adjusting consumer rights request practices, and other data processing protocols. By understanding what data clients retains and the flow of that data, Chris ensures they are well positioned to comply with consumer rights requests, external regulatory requirements, and internal data protocols.
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Represented clients in all phases of business formation, acquisition, and management, including entity formation choices, employment agreements, and independent contractor agreements.
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Handled Dental Service Organization (DSO) formation, DSO business structures, DSO related mergers and acquisitions, and regulatory compliance for DSOs including the corporate practice of dentistry, as well as credentialing, permit and licensure regulations.
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Handled dozens of significant medical practice transactions on behalf of buyers, sellers, minority investors, and lenders.
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Advises clients with multinational data protection and cyber security obligations, including European and sate-specific data protection law compliance, international data transfers, and related issues.
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Advised clients in connection with privacy and data security, including GDPR, CPA and CCPA, for both internal and client-facing policies, protocols and data processing form agreements, ensuring legal compliance and retaining customer-friendly attributes. Provided detailed guidelines that may differ by country and state to help the client navigate the complexities of multi-jurisdictional operations.
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Counsels clients on large information technology and business process outsourcing arrangements, cloud-based contracts, software license and development agreements, and digitization initiatives.
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Represented buyers, sellers, developers, landlords, tenants, lenders, and borrowers in all phases of real estate ownership and development including acquisition of raw land, development, leasing, management, and disposition. Properties ranging from $1M to $250M.
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Represented one of the nation’s largest art museums in a land acquisition and environmental risk mitigation matter, securing the museum’s status as an exempt bona fide prospective purchaser and allowing it to acquire land despite its registration as a CERCLA Superfund site.
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Represented landowners in transactions with photovoltaic and other renewable energy sources.
Certificates
• Certified Information Privacy Professional, United States (CIPP/US)
• Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM)
Presentations
• Colorado Real Estate Journal – Retail Livestream Summit; Post-COVID Legal Pitfalls, 2020
• Dental Transition: American Dental Society Continuing Education, 2019
• Higher Scrutiny: Due Diligence in Real Estate Investing, 2018
Community Involvement
• U.S. Green Building Council
• Urban Land Institute
• Open Space and Mountain Parks
• Rock The Earth
• The Conscious Alliance
Recognition
- Colorado Super Lawyers
- Rising Star, Business/Corporate, 2024
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