Chris Terry is a business attorney and trusted legal advisor to clients ranging from startups, growth stage companies, and closely held family businesses, to venture and private equity funds, partnerships and entrepreneurs.
Chris has extensive experience representing clients on corporate structuring, equity and debt financings, acquisitions and strategic joint ventures, as well as commercial agreements, technology licensing, outsourcing, and other business matters. Chris also brings a wealth of experience advising his clients on transactions that involve complex global or cross-border components, including hundreds of investments and acquisitions in the US, Asia, Europe, South America and Africa.
Chris regularly advises his corporate clients on day-to-day corporate matters, including employee incentive programs, vendor contracts, employment agreements, corporate governance and securities law compliance. Chris’ industry specific experience includes, mobile Internet, SaaS, medical devices, digital advertising, fintech, social media, and clean tech, among others.
Chris also regularly advises distressed companies and their stakeholders on corporate restructurings, workouts, reorganizations, spin-offs, and similar transactions.
Before Bowditch
Prior to joining Bowditch, Chris was a partner in the Boston office of a global law firm. Chris also worked internationally for over a decade, co-launching a US firm’s first international office in China, and also serving as one of the founding partners of the China Venture Capital group of one of the world’s largest law firms.
Besides work
Chris grew up in the mountains of New Hampshire, where he developed a love for snow and ski racing, but also a desire to see the world – which eventually led him to Spain and then to China, where he lived and worked for over a decade. Chris now lives in Winchester with his lovely wife, two school age boys, a black lab, and a wizened street cat that followed him home all the way from Beijing.
Affiliations
- Boston Bar Association
Articles + Talks
Talks
- Venture Capital Panel, Tsinghua University Alumni Association’s Annual Conference, 2025
Bar Admissions
- Massachusetts
- California
Education
- J.D., Columbia University School of Law
- B.A., University of California at Berkeley
Chris has over two decades of experience advising early stage and emerging growth companies, multi-nationals, and institutional investors on legal matters for their entire life cycle, including formation, fund raising, commercial transactions, restructuring, acquisitions, dispositions, and liquidations.
Representative industries include, among others, social media, fintech, mobile applications, online gaming, digital marketing, entertainment, life sciences, and software-as-a-service.
Venture and Debt Financing
Chris advises companies, venture capital and private equity funds and corporate investments funds in connection with over 200 equity and debt investments, including the following recent transactions:
- $50 million Series D financing and secured lending facility for an e-commerce company specializing in organic skincare and hair products for children
- Secured lending facility for an independently owned and operated bond agency
- $5 million SAFE financing for a social media platform
- $5 million Series C financing and restructuring for a knowledge sharing platform with over 800,000 vetted global experts and fractional talent
- $3 million seed financing for an AI-powered patent drafting legal solutions provider
- Institutional financing round for an independent record label
- $3 million convertible note financing for an AI-powered online career platform and job search engine
- $16 million series seed financing for a fintech and real estate management services platform
- Venture debt financing for a software as a service expert network provider
- $15 million Series A financing for a blockchain software solutions provider
- $10 million series seed financing for a legal and compliance platform for private securities brokerages
M&A and Joint Ventures
Chris represents companies and stakeholders in acquisitions, dispositions, divestitures, roll-ups, restructurings and similar complex commercial transactions. Recent representative transactions include:
- Sale of social media application with over two million monthly active users and related assets for a software developer
- Sale of an independent investment advisor practice to a wealth management firm
- Acquisition of certain assets from an educational institution for a non-profit university
- Sale of an independent investment advisor practice to a wealth management firm
- Proposed sale of a social media application developer to a publicly listed AI-driven social media and streaming platform
- Acquisition of an LGBTQ+ social and dating app for a leading social media company
- Acquisition of a creator focused mobile application by a digital entertainment brand
International Experience
Chris also has a wealth of experience representing clients in cross-border transactions, including investments, joint ventures, acquisitions, and similar commercial transactions in the following jurisdictions:
- Australia
- British Virgin Islands
- Cayman Islands
- China
- Ecuador
- England
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Hong Kong
- India
- Italy
- Japan
- Luxembourg
- Mauritius
- Mexico
- Nigeria
- Singapore
- Sweden
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Vietnam