Christopher M. Von Maack

Founding Partner  |  Salt Lake City, UT

Christopher M. Von Maack is a civil trial lawyer and partner at McNeill Von Maack. His practice focuses on disputes in the areas of contract, intellectual property, partnership, real property, and unfair competition. He is licensed to practice law in Utah and California.

Mr. Von Maack is ranked in Chambers USA and Best Lawyers and maintains an AV Preeminent peer-review rating and a Preeminent client-review rating by Martindale-Hubbell. He has consistently been included on the list of Super Lawyers. He has also been voted by his peers as one of Utah's Legal Elite, as published in Utah Business Magazine.

His representative clients include publicly-traded, mid-sized, and startup companies facing ‘bet-the-company' disputes. Highlighted results include the following:

• Multimillion-dollar jury verdict (including punitive damages) in dispute between partners of storied Utah restaurant
• Approximately $30 million defense award in New York arbitration proceeding against a Direct Selling Association company
• Case-ending discovery sanctions and judgment against adverse parties that used altered documents during the case
• Temporary restraining order requiring a developer to specifically perform on a $17.5 million real estate purchase contract
• Case-ending exclusion of evidence in federal trade secret misappropriation case
• Multiple temporary restraining orders, preliminary injunctions, partial summary judgment rulings, and civil contempt citations in a federal trademark and copyright case
  
• Rare bad-faith dismissal of an adversary's tactical Chapter 11 bankruptcy case in Delaware

Mr. Von Maack is the chair of the Utah Professionalism and Civility Counseling Board. He previously served as a member of the Utah Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professionalism, the Committee on the Model Utah Jury Instructions, and Utah State Bar's Governmental Relations Committee. He also served as co-chair of the Utah State Bar Young Lawyers Division Committee on Professionalism and the Practice of Law. He is a member of the David K. Watkiss-Sutherland II Inns of Court. 

Mr. Von Maack graduated from UCLA with a degree in English. He obtained his J.D. from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, where he graduated Order of the Coif and was a writer and editor for the McGeorge Law Review.

Prior to starting McNeill Von Maack, he was a partner at Magleby Cataxinos & Greenwood. Before that, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Pamela T. Greenwood of the Utah Court of Appeals.

Mr. Von Maack serves on the board of trustees for Rowland Hall St. Mark's School (chair 2020-2023), is a director for the R. Harold Burton Foundation (chair 2020-2023), and previously served on the board of Preservation Utah. 

Areas Of Practice

Business Torts

Contracts

Copyright

Intellectual Property

Partnerships

Real Property

Trademark

Trade Secret

Unfair Competition

Bar Admissions

California, 2004

Utah, 2005

United States District Court District of Utah, 2005

United States District Court Central District of California, 2006

United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, 2009

Supreme Court of the United States of America, 2014

Education

McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific, Sacramento, California

• J.D. - 2004 
• Order of the Coif

University of California, Los Angeles, California 

• B.A. - 2001 
• Major: English

Published Works

"A Relatively Simple Matter": Navigating The Utah Discovery Rule, 19 Utah Bar J. 4 (July/Aug. 2006). 

"Civility in the Practice of Law": A Young Lawyer's Perspective, 19 Utah Bar J. 7 (Nov./Dec. 2006). 

Representative Cases

Caruso v. Viridian Network, LLC (AAA Arbitration 2015)

ClearOne Commc'ns, Inc. v. Chiang, Case No. 2:07cv37-TC-DN (D. Utah 2007) 

Derma Pen, LLC v. 4EverYoung Ltd., Case No. 2:13-CV-00729-DN-EJF (D. Utah 2015)

GeoMetWatch Corp. v. Hall, Case No. 1:14-CV-00060-JNP (D. Utah 2014)

Haug v. La Caille Restaurant Corp., Case No. 060902238 (Utah Dist. Ct. 2006) 

IBC Advanced Techs., Inc. v. 6th Wave Innovations Corp., Case No. 2:19-CV-00826 (D. Utah 2019)

Midwest Office, Inc. v. RHB Direct, LLC, Case No. 2:08-CV-966 TS (D. Utah 2008)

Neff v. Neff, 2011 UT 6, 247 P.3d 380

Ward v. McGarry, 2022 UT App, 511 P.3d 1213

Washington County, Utah v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., Case No. 180500119 (Utah Dist. Ct. 2018)

XPO Logistics, Inc. v. Leeway Glob. Logistics, LLC, Case No. 2:15-CV-00703-CW (D. Utah 2015)

Representative Clients

Align Complete Real Estate Services LLC

Associated Pharmacies Inc.

Crius Energy Trust

G-Bar Ventures, LLC

LeeWay Global Logistics, LLC

North American Potash Developments, Inc.

PillPack, Inc.

Positive Gaming AS

Six Sisters' Stuff, LLC

Transfac Capital, LLC

Viridian Energy, Inc.

Classes/Seminars

Utah Standards of Professionalism & Civility - Gaining Traction and Growing Teeth, Utah State Bar Paralegal Division Annual Seminar

The Professionalism Counseling Board: What It Is, How it Operates, and Why You Should Care, Utah State Bar CLE,

Honors and Awards

Chambers USA (Litigation: General Commercial)

AV Preeminent Peer-Review Rating by Martindale-Hubbell

Preeminent Client-Review Rating by Martindale-Hubbell

Mountain States Super Lawyers (Business Litigation)

Utah Business Magazine's Legal Elite (Civil Litigation)

Witkin Awards, Top Grade in Legal Writing and International Water Law

Professional Associations

Utah Professionalism and Civility Counseling Board, Chair, 2018 to Present

David K. Watkiss-Sutherland II Inn of Court, Member, 2005 to Present

Committee on the Model Utah Jury Instructions (MUJI), Member, 2015 to 2018

Utah Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professionalism, Member, 2006 to 2015

Utah State Bar Governmental Relations Committee, Member, 2008 to 2012 

Utah State Bar Young Lawyers Division Committee on Professionalism, Co-Chair, Practice of Law Committee, 2005 to 2008 

Community Involvement

Rowland Hall St. Mark's School, Board of Trustees, 2014 to Present; Chair 2020 to 2023

R. Harold Burton Foundation, Director, 2018 to Present; Chair 2020 to 2023

Preservation Utah, Trustee, 2010 to 2018

Salt Lake City Honorary Colonels, Trustee, 2012 to 2017

American Cancer Society, Ambassador, 2010 to 2013

Huntsman 2012 and McCain 2008 Utah Finance Committee, Member

McCain 2008 Utah Finance Committee, Member 

Past Positions 

Partner, Magleby Cataxinos & Greenwood

Law Clerk, Hon. Pamela T. Greenwood, Utah Court of Appeals, 2004 to 2005