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Christine Malafi

Senior Partner

Ronkonkoma

(631) 738-9100 ext. 338

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
Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Rating
Power 25 Lawyer ListLong Island Business News (2022)
Leadership in Law – Lifetime Achievement Award, Long Island Business News (2021)
Super Lawyers (2019-2023)
Best Lawyers in America – Employment Law/Management (2017-2024)
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)

Super Lawyers Christine Malafi

In the News

Articles by Christine Malafi

Lectures & Presentations

May 2022: XPX Long Island (Exit Planning Exchange), “Bringing Key People Under the Tent: Key Concerns and Best Practices in M&A”

April 2022: Suffolk County Bar Association, Allen Sak Municipal Law Lecture, “Sexual Harassment Update for Municipalities”

April 2022: Entrepreneurs Across America Restaurant Coalition, “Environmental Law, Sexual Harassment, and COVID Update for the Hospitality Industry”

April 2022: Town of Islip & Ignite LI (The Manufacturing Consortium of Long Island), “The Autistic Workforce in the Industrial Sector”

April 2022: Girls Inc., Brentwood High School Career Panel

February 2022: Miller Business Resource Center, “NYS HERO Act and Workplace Safety Committees”

January 2022: Suffolk County Bar Association, “Issues When Buying or Selling a Business”

December 2021: Amity Education Group New York, “Financial and Legal Advice for Startups and Small Businesses”

November 2021: Suffolk County Bar Association, “Tax Issues in M&A”

January 2021: Gettry Marcus Webinar, “Paycheck Protection Program as Modified by the Economic Aid Act”

January 2021: New York State Bar Association, “Business Interruption Claims in the World of COVID-19”

December 2020: Suffolk County Bar Association, “Business Interruption Insurance During COVID”

December 2020: Suffolk County Bar Association, “Unconscious Bias”

September 2020: Suffolk County Bar Association, “Waivers? Avoidance of Liability Post-COVID Reopening”

June 2020: Suffolk County Bar Association, Allen Sak Municipal Law Lecture, “Representing Municipalities on Planning Board & ZBA Matters”

June 2020: Gettry Marcus Webinar, “Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act”

June 2020: Exit Planning Institute – Long Island Chapter, “M&A Case Study”

June 2020: Suffolk County Bar Association, “Back to Work After COVID-19”

May 2020: Gettry Marcus Webinar, “The Forgivable or Not-So-Forgivable PPP Loan

April 2020: Gettry Marcus Webinar, “Paycheck Protection Program Loan Forgiveness Requirements

March 2019: Three Village Chamber of Commerce, “What the Sexual Harassment Law Means for Business”

March 2019: Broadridge Financial Solutions and Athena Long Island, “Women & Negotiation”

February 2019: Suffolk County Bar Association, “Social Media and Municipalities”

December 2018: LI News Radio, “Women’s Roundtable”

October 2018: Lloyd Staffing, “Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Steps Employers Must Take Now”

October 2018: Long Island Pool & Spa Association, “Sexual Harassment in the Workplace”

September 2018: CMM Academy, “Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Steps Employers Must Take Now”

July 2018: CMM CLE Series, “Mergers & Acquisitions: Due Diligence”

January 2018: Miller Business Resource Center, “Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Steps Employers Must Take Now”

September 2017: New York State Bar Association, “Law School for Insurance Professionals”

March 2017: Girls Inc., “Women’s Leadership”

December 2016: Miller Business Resource Center, “Employee Privacy”

December 2016: HIA-LI, “Women Leading the Way”

June 2016: New York State Bar Association, Insurance Coverage Update 2016, “Municipality Coverage: The Flint Water Crisis and Impact on Coverage”

February 2016: Miller Business Resource Center, “Employee Background Checks and Social Media”

February 2016: HR East End Circle, “Employee Privacy Issues”

May 2015: New York State Bar Association CLE, Insurance Coverage Update 2015, “Declaratory Judgment Actions, Discovery & Trial”

November 2010: Chief Judge Lippman’s New York State Judicial Institute on Professionalism in the Law, “A Convocation on Independence and the Government Lawyer,” Albany, NY

October 2010: Chief Judge Lippman’s New York State Task Force to Expand Access to Legal Services in New York, Local Issues and Need for Legal Services Panel, Appellate Division, Second Department, Brooklyn, NY

September 2010: Chief Judge Lippman’s New York State Judicial Institute on Professionalism in the Law, Long Island Focus Group on Municipal Lawyers, Uniondale, NY