As a teenager and college student, Chris Blevins watched his father — an accountant turned business entrepreneur — negotiate contracts, do deals with vendors and handle issues with clients and customers.
“I was taking a few business and law-related classes, and I started realizing that the things that frustrated him weren’t about the product or the customers, they were about navigating legal and contractual issues that felt foreign and risky,” Blevins said. “It clicked for me that I could be someone who helped businesses run better by removing the friction and risk around these issues, making things clearer and easier.”
For Blevins, the career strategy paid major dividends in 2025 when he scored some huge successes for Grapevine-based Solo Brands. Last year, Blevins:
- Successfully appealed the outdoor apparel and lifestyle brands seller’s New York Stock Exchange delisting;
- Led a complex 1-for-40 reverse stock split;
- Led a credit restructuring agreement with its bankers;
- Oversaw three major innovative product launches;
- Conducted a strategic review of the company’s contract portfolio that resulted in a $10 million savings; and
- Was promoted to general counsel in July.
“Chris is a force multiplier: tight contracting, smart risk calls and fast answers that helped us execute week after week,” said Solo Brands Chief Financial Officer Laura Coffey.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Blevins as a finalist for the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department (two to five attorneys). ACC-DFW and The Lawbook will honor the finalists and announce the winners of the awards on Jan. 29 at a ceremony at the George W. Bush Institute.
“In a year defined by extraordinary challenges and changes, Chris has consistently shown outstanding leadership, strategic vision and legal expertise, driving Solo Brands Inc. toward stability and renewed growth,” said Greenberg Traurig shareholder Rob LeBlanc, who nominated Blevins for the award.
“Chris is an excellent lawyer because he combines strong technical judgment with a clear understanding of business realities,” LeBlanc said. “He does not just identify legal risk; he contextualizes it, prioritizes it and helps leadership make informed decisions quickly. As general counsel, he is pragmatic, responsive and deeply aligned with the company’s strategic goals, serving as a trusted advisor rather than a roadblock. I can truly say he’s one of the sharpest lawyers I’ve ever worked with at picking up very nuanced legal issues and quickly cutting to the core of the issue to find a pragmatic solution.”
Haynes Boone partner Dustin Johnson said Blevins “is first and foremost an extremely talented lawyer.”
“Chris has the background and knowledge to identify legal issues across a wide swath of practice areas relating to U.S. laws, but he also deals regularly with international issues,” Johnson said. “He has a good sense for when to handle issues himself and when to rely on an outside or international team to ensure he’s getting the right answers for himself and the management team.”
“In an industry where knock-off products are not uncommon, Chris successfully uses Solo’s IP to strategically protect its market while carefully balancing the expense, providing great value for his client,” Johnson said.
Blevins, in an interview with The Lawbook, said that he is always challenging himself to “be a better strategic partner to the business” by “helping to facilitate growth, strengthen governance and managing risk in a dynamic environment.”
“My biggest accomplishments have been building the legal function into a supportive and trusted part of the business and helping the company navigate several pivotal moments over the past year,” he said. “That includes our NYSE relisting, the restructuring of our credit agreement and unwinding and renegotiating high value legacy contracts and business arrangements.”
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Chris Blevins discusses the traits he seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with him and more.
Blevins was born and raised in Tustin, California. His father was an accountant for Arthur Young & Co., who later in life started his own business, including running his own fire pit company — an ironic twist since one of Solo Brands’ biggest product lines includes stainless steel fire pits. His mother worked for a medical device company and also managed the Blevins household.
“Watching them balance professional ambition with family responsibilities had a big influence on my work ethic and values,” he said. “My career has been shaped more by a series of experiences than by one single event — particularly being exposed to entrepreneurship at home and then seeing firsthand how law can support and enable businesses. That combination pushed me toward a career where I could be practical, supportive and business-oriented in my approach to law.”
After earning his bachelor’s degree in global studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2002, Blevins obtained his law degree from the University of Arizona in 2007.
Blevins spent his first three years of legal practice at Arizona’s Benavidez Law Firm, which specialized in representing cities, towns and municipalities as their outside general counsel.
“It gave me excellent exposure to public meetings and to legal issues spanning many departments,” he said. “I also had a tremendous mentor, Thomas Benavidez, who gave me both the foundation and the trust to grow as a young attorney.”
In 2010, he moved to. Irvine, California, where he joined a firm litigating real estate matters in both state and federal court throughout California and Arizona.
“While I enjoyed litigation and became very capable at it, I realized my passion was working directly with businesses to solve their legal problems,” he said. “I wanted to be closer to the business and be more proactive rather than reactive.”
In 2013, Blevins made the move in-house to Sage Point Lender Services. In 2016, he moved to Tidalwave Financial.
The California financial investment giant PIMCO hired Blevins in 2019.
“PIMCO offered the opportunity to work in a highly sophisticated, global organization,” he said. “The experience broadened my perspective and strengthened my ability to operate in complex, fast-paced environments.”
In 2022, Texas-headquartered Solo Brands came calling, naming Blevins as its deputy general counsel.
“I was first drawn to Solo Brands as a customer — I genuinely loved the products, especially the fire pits and the enthusiasm of the customer base,” he said. “The company had just gone public when I joined in 2022 and acquired three tremendous and exciting companies along the way — Chubbies, Oru Kayak and ISLE. I also had a close friend from law school on the team, so everything aligned.”
Blevins said his role at Solo Brands over the past three years has “evolved from being primarily transactional and reactive to being increasingly strategic and forward-looking.”
“I’ve seen myself become involved much earlier in the decision-making process — helping leadership evaluate risk, structure opportunities and providing support to teams to help shape processes, priorities and culture,” he said.
On Dec. 31, 2024, Solo Brands named Blevins its interim general counsel when its previous GC resigned.
Within weeks, the new top legal officer at the publicly traded company faced monumental challenges.
On April 22, the New York Stock Exchange announced that it was initiating proceedings to delist Solo Brands and that the ticker symbol DTC stopped trading immediately. The NYSE cited Solo Brands’ “abnormally low selling price” as the reason. The stock, according to media reports, had failed to maintain a $1 trading price over a 30-day period.
LeBlanc, in nominating Blevins, said it was a development “that shook investor confidence and challenged the company’s market position.”
“Chris took charge of the response, orchestrating the appeal process with both professionalism and speed,” LeBlanc said. “He worked closely with external advisors and internal teams to ensure the company’s case was presented effectively and persuasively.”
As part of the appeal, Blevins and Solo Brands executives initiated a 1-for-40 reverse stock split to realign its share price and support continued NYSE compliance.
The action required coordinated board approvals, public disclosures and filings, investor communications and close work with the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation and the Options Clearing Corporation, which are federally regulated utilities that manage risk in the U.S. markets, and brokerage networks to ensure a clean conversion of outstanding Class A and Class B shares.
At the same time, Solo Brands conducted a credit agreement restructuring that revised Solo Brands’ capital structure with a $90 million revolving facility, a new $240 million term loan, paydowns of outstanding amounts and an extended maturity to June 30, 2028.
“Chris led the charge to effectuate the reverse stock split and ensure compliance throughout the process,” LeBlanc said. “He supported negotiations in a collaborative effort across the legal, finance, and the executive teams to address concerns and help the company secure more favorable terms. The result was a restructured debt agreement that extended the company’s refinancing timeline through June 2028, eliminated the immediate threat, and drove a rebound in the company’s stock price.”
On July 18, Solo Brands started trading on the NYSE again but under a new ticker symbol: SBDS.
That same month — and not by coincidence — Solo Brands named Blevins as its general counsel.
Lawyers who know Blevins stays heavily involved in his family and community. He served as president of his son’s little league and is currently the coach of his daughter’s all-star softball team, which won their district, finished top five in the state and made it to nationals last year.
“Chris’s achievements this year are a testament to his exceptional leadership, legal expertise and strategic vision,” LeBlanc said. “He has navigated the company through crisis and implemented lasting progress that benefits Solo Brands Inc. and its stakeholders.”
Fun Facts
- Favorite book: Wooden on Leadership by John Wooden. John Wooden is a legendary coach, and the book is full of extremely valuable insights.
- Favorite music group: Jason Aldean
- Favorite movie: A Few Good Men
- Favorite restaurant: Jalapeños in my Tustin hometown. Carne asada burrito.
- Favorite beverage: Diet Dr. Pepper
- Favorite vacation: Hawaii
- Hero in life: My mom — she is the rock of our family and has always shown us how to thrive in the face of adversity.