Mesothelioma is caused by asbestos exposure, and Chris knows who bears the burden: workers, veterans, and their families whose lives have been forever changed by a disease that could've been prevented. Many of the companies responsible knowingly exposed millions of Americans to asbestos in order to protect their profits.

Having grown up in a small, blue-collar farming town, Chris sees the pattern up close in his own casework. The clients he represents are often workers who were simply trying to provide for their families when they were exposed on the job.

"A lot of my clients spent their whole careers doing hard, honest work," Chris says. "The least I can do is make sure the companies that put them at risk don't get to walk away from it."

Chris has worked on hundreds of asbestos-related cases, with past settlements totaling millions of dollars for the families he's represented. At Sokolove Law, his work centers on case investigation and depositions, the groundwork that determines how strong a case is before it ever gets close to a courtroom.

"I try to keep things simple for my clients," Chris says. "They're already dealing with enough. The last thing they need is to feel confused or in the dark about their own case."

Background & Education

Chris studied political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where an introduction to the Innocence Project — an organization dedicated to freeing the wrongfully convicted — first pointed him toward a legal career. He went on to earn his J.D. from Southern Illinois University School of Law.

He started out as a criminal defense attorney before shifting to asbestos litigation, where he's spent the bulk of his career since. Chris is admitted to practice in Missouri (2019) and Illinois (2020), as well as before the Southern District of Illinois (2022).

He was named to The National Trial Lawyers' Top 40 Under 40 list in 2023 and again in 2025, and holds memberships with the American Association for Justice, the American Bar Association, the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, and the Missouri Bar Association.