Christopher C. Negrete

Overview

Chris Negrete offers comprehensive defense strategies for licensed professionals, including skilled nursing facilities, architects, engineers, and insurance agents, against claims of professional negligence. His practice spans complex litigation and transactional matters, representing private and governmental clients in civil rights disputes, commercial conflicts, construction defect cases, general liability, bodily injury, nursing home litigation, sexual abuse and sex trafficking, and product liability claims. Chris’s unique strength lies in blending trial and appellate advocacy with transactional expertise, enabling him to protect clients’ interests both in court and through carefully crafted contracts.

Chris has secured numerous favorable rulings in federal and state appellate courts, reflecting his commitment to advancing his clients’ positions beyond trial. His appellate work demonstrates a strategic understanding of legal precedent and procedural nuance, often shaping outcomes with lasting impact. This focus on appellate advocacy distinguishes his practice and adds depth to his litigation prowess.

Recognizing the value of prevention, Chris emphasizes drafting precise contract language to reduce litigation risks. He has negotiated and prepared a wide range of business agreements, including shareholder agreements, employment contracts, operating agreements, stock and asset purchase agreements, finance leases, indemnity agreements, and real estate sale contracts. Chris’s transactional acumen complements his dispute resolution acuity, providing clients with proactive legal solutions that can safeguard their business relationships and limit exposure to disputes.

Experience

• Affirmed that a J-1 visa sponsor is not an insurer of the safety of adult participants in the U.S. State Department’s Summer Work & Travel Program
• Granted a new trial where the trial judge refused to permit the introduction of evidence establishing the liability of a settling co-defendant
• Reversed a lower court’s decision that struck an intermediate care facility’s objections to discovery based upon the Pennsylvania Peer Review Protection Act
• Affirmed that a developer may not subvert the appeal provisions of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code by asserting claims for breach of contract and promissory estoppel
• Affirmed that federal courts lack subject matter jurisdiction over challenges to state and local taxes where state courts supply an adequate remedy, and holding that Pennsylvania courts provide such a remedy
• Obtained summary judgment in favor of a wholesale insurance broker where the plaintiff alleged that the broker did not offer sufficient insurance to cover $4M in alleged losses arising out of a fire that destroyed a warehouse
• Obtained judgment notwithstanding the verdict following trial in Philadelphia involving multiple deaths arising out of a single vehicle accident that erased a $15M jury verdict against his client
• Obtained summary judgment in favor of a nursing home where plaintiff alleged that the nursing home respiratory therapy staff failed to properly re-insert a trach tube during a routine trach tube change which plaintiff claimed resulted in the resident’s death

Publications & Speeches

Publications

• Author, Published Opinion, Monger v. Upper Leacock Township, 132 A.3d 585 (Pa. Commw. 2016) (holding that developers cannot assert claims for breach of express and implied contract and promissory estoppel against a municipality to subvert the 30-day deadline to appeal land use decisions set forth in the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code)
• Author, “Lozano v. City of Hazleton: A Review of Recent U.S. Court Decisions on Preemption,”  DRI’s For the Defense magazine, December 2008
• Overview Author, CLM Claims Manual, 2013

Presentations & Speeches

• Speaker, “Overview of Comparative Negligence, Joint and Several Liability and Contribution in Select States,” RSUI, April 2015
• Speaker, “Overview of Products Liability Claims and Defenses in Select States,” Admiral Insurance, February 2015
• Speaker, “Overview of Liability for Criminal Acts of Third Parties in Select States, RSUI, April 2013
• Speaker, “Overview of Insurance Claims Practices in New York and Ohio,” RSUI, May 2012
• Speaker, “Overview of Contractual Indemnity, Additional Insured Status, and Insured Contracts in Construction Defect Matters in Select States,” RSUI, April 2012
• Speaker, “Overview of Insurability of Punitive Damages in the 50 United States,” RSUI, April 2011
• Speaker, “National Survey of Courts’ Interpretations of Real Property Exclusions J(5) and J(6),” RSUI, March 2008
• Speaker, “The Assault and Battery Exclusion: A Survey of Its Interpretation in Key States,” RSUI, March 2007
• Speaker, “Overview of Comparative Negligence, Joint and Several Liability, and Contribution in the 50 United States,” Admiral Insurance, January 2006
• Speaker, “Overview of Comparative Negligence, Joint and Several Liability, and Contribution in the 50 United States,” ACE Insurance, October 2005
• Speaker, “Overview of Indemnity/Hold Harmless Agreements and Additional Insured Status in Select States,” RSUI, March 2005
• Speaker, “Overview of Comparative Negligence, Joint and Several Liability, and Contribution in the 50 United States,” RSUI, March 2004

News

Professional

• Member, Pennsylvania Bar Association, 2000 to Present
• Member, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Bar Association
• Member, Philadelphia Bar Association
• Member, Philadelphia Association of Defense Counsel