Christopher Banys heads the Lanier Law Firm's Palo Alto, California office.  His practice focuses on high-stakes intellectual property disputes.

In addition to intellectual property matters, Mr. Banys has litigated commercial, criminal, immigration, probate, personal injury, employment and state-benefits matters in federal, state and administrative-law courts.

Mr. Banys' pro bono work has included representing low-income individuals in immigration and eviction proceedings, counseling non-profit organizations in intellectual property matters and representing homeless mothers and their children in denial of emergency shelter proceedings.

Prior to founding the Lanier Law Firm's Palo Alto office, Mr. Banys was associated with several prominent law firms in Silicon Valley.

Mr. Banys earned his J.D. from Boston University, where he was a Dean's Scholar. While at B.U., he participated in the school's exceptional Criminal Clinic program, where for two semesters he tried criminal cases in Massachusetts state courts, first as a student defender, and later representing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a student prosecutor.

Mr. Banys spent his final semester of law school studying at Oxford University in Oxford, England. His focus at Oxford was comparative intellectual property law and jurisprudence.

Mr. Banys earned his undergraduate degree in Spanish and Portuguese from the University of California (Berkeley), with high honors and high distinction in general scholarship.

Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mr. Banys worked as a whitewater raft guide and professional sailing instructor before beginning law school.  He is also a commercially-rated pilot.

Mr. Banys is admitted to practice in all California state courts, and the United States District Courts in the Northern and Central Districts of California and the Eastern District of Texas.