Christine Malafi chairs the Corporate Department at CMM, which Forbes has recognized as a Top Corporate Law Firm in America.
Christine has led the CMM legal team in closing countless M&A deals worth billions of dollars. She has vast experience advising on both buy-side and sell-side M&A transactions in a variety of industries, including technology, manufacturing, education, healthcare, and professional service sectors. Christine is particularly adept at working closely and strategically with clients’ other professional advisors, including accountants, bankers, and M&A advisors, as well as forging those critical relationships for clients based on the deep network of relationships she has cultivated over years in the business.
Christine’s practice also includes advising clients on business divorce matters and a wide variety of both routine and complex corporate transactions. She serves in a general counsel role for many of the firm’s corporate clients. Clients also turn to Christine for guidance on employment issues including payment of wages, overtime, paid and unpaid leave, hiring, and termination; drafting customized policies, procedures, handbooks, and training programs, including sexual harassment prevention; and conducting internal investigations in connection with discrimination, harassment, compensation, overtime, and other issues. She defends employers in investigations by regulatory and government agencies including the NYDOL, the USDOL, the New York State Attorney General’s Office, the EEOC, and state and county Human Rights agencies.
Prior to joining the firm, Christine was senior corporate counsel to Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc., where she handled a variety of national and international corporate and business matters, including business expansion and acquisitions. Prior to that, in 2004, she was appointed as the Suffolk County Attorney, serving as the chief legal officer of the County for eight years. In that role, Christine supervised a team of over 65 attorneys and 50 support staff and managed a budget of $15 million. The first woman and youngest person ever to serve in the position, Christine focused on streamlining processes, obtaining jury verdicts in favor of the County, making fewer settlements, enforcing anti-discrimination laws, and protecting children from harm.
Christine has the unique perspective of being a corporate lawyer who spent the first half of her career as a litigator with extensive experience in municipal, insurance coverage, and fraud issues. She brings her deep understanding of litigation and the court system to all aspects of her corporate work and uses this experience to help protect clients from a variety of critical angles.
Christine has taught both undergraduate and law school classes on litigation, legal research, and writing at Long Island University, C.W. Post, and Touro Law Center and has lectured extensively on labor and employment, municipal, and insurance coverage issues, as well as claim handling and defense.
Education
Dowling College, B.A.
Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, J.D., magna cum laude
Admissions
New York
Connecticut
United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
United States District Court, Southern District of New York
United States District Court, Eastern District of New York
Boards, Associations, and Leadership
Executive Board of Directors & Vice-Chair of Governance & Nominating, Family Service League
Board of Governors, Touro Law School
Member, Judicial Screening Committee, Suffolk County Bar Association
New York State Pro Bono Scholars Task Force
Member, New York State Bar Association
Member, Suffolk County Bar Association
Past Board of Directors, Girl Scouts of Suffolk County
Past Board of Directors, Natasha’s Justice Project
Past Member, New York State Task Force to Expand Access to Legal Services
Past Member, New York State Judicial Institute on Professionalism in the Law
Past Arbitrator, Suffolk County District Court, Small Claims Part
Recognitions
Dan’s Power List of the East End, Schneps Media (2024)
Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Rating
Power 25 Lawyer List, Long Island Business News (2022)
Leadership in Law – Lifetime Achievement Award, Long Island Business News (2021)
Super Lawyers (2019-2024)
Best Lawyers in America – Employment Law/Management (2017-2025)
Leadership in Law Award, Long Island Business News (2017, 2023)
Butterfly Award, Girls Inc. of Long Island (2016)
Top Outstanding Women in Law, Hofstra University School of Law’s Center for Children, Families and the Law (2016)
Who’s Who in Intellectual Property & Labor Law, Long Island Business News (2015-2016)
Long Island’s Top 50 Most Influential Women in Business Award, Long Island Business News (2009, 2014)
“Women in the Law: Historic Firsts in Suffolk County” honoree, Suffolk County Historical Society (2014)
Paul S. Miller “With Liberty & Justice for All” Award, Touro Law Center (2010)
Public Service Award, Touro Law Center Alumni Association (2009)
EAC Marcie Mazzolla Children’s Advocate of the Year Award to the County Attorney’s Office (2008)
