Chris Rodgers

Chris Rodgers is executive vice president and general counsel for the National Restaurant Association and National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, responsible for all Association legal matters. He also serves as corporate secretary for the Association and Foundation.

As EVP and general counsel, Rodgers oversees the legal needs of the Association’s robust business operations, as well as the compliance, corporate governance, M&A, and transactional needs of the both organizations.

Prior to joining the National Restaurant Association, Rodgers was founder and co-leader of the international law firm Bryan Cave LLP’s Trade Association, Business League, and Professional Association practice group. Having served as outside general counsel to several first-tier trade associations and non-profit entities, he has extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing corporate governance policies, compliance policies and procedures, legislative initiatives, and the general business and corporate legal needs of such organizations. He also has extensive experience as a corporate deal attorney, handling numerous financings, mergers, acquisitions, asset sales, and similar transactions.

Earlier in his career, he was a partner at law-firm Powell Goldstein LLP, and an accountant with Ernst & Young. Rodgers earned his Juris Doctor, with honors, from The George Washington University Law School and his Bachelors of Science in Accounting from the University of Maryland, College Park.