Dentons, the world’s largest global law firm, announces today that Christie Brown Tillapaugh has been elected President and CEO of Dentons Cohen & Grigsby.

Following a 12-month comprehensive succession and corporate governance process involving multiple stakeholders across the firm, Tillapaugh was elected by her partners to succeed Christopher B. Carson. Over the next six months, Tillapaugh will serve as President-Elect until fully assuming the President and CEO role.

During Carson’s eight-year tenure at the helm, Dentons Cohen & Grigsby, formerly Cohen & Grigsby, P.C., expanded its representation of significant existing and new clients and joined forces with Dentons in 2020. After completing his second, four-year term, Carson will return to full-time client work, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and general corporate law. He will also continue his service on the Dentons Global Board and his work in the US Region as the firm continues its growth and integration.

“I am deeply honored and incredibly excited to accept the responsibility to lead Dentons Cohen & Grigsby into our next important chapter,” Tillapaugh offered. “As a result of the firm’s unique culture and entrepreneurial spirit, under Chris Carson’s leadership, we have made smart, strategic decisions that built upon the firm’s solid platform, allowing us to be responsive to challenging market conditions. As we continue to evolve and grow, I look forward to furthering collaboration, engagement, and innovation to meet the needs of our clients – both in the US and around the world – and propel our firm’s growth.”

Tillapaugh, who is the first woman to fill the role of President and CEO of Dentons Cohen & Grigsby, has been with the firm since 2008 and is Chair of its Nonprofit and Tax-Exempt Organizations Group. She has 20+ years of experience serving as outside general counsel and providing corporate governance and strategic transaction-related counseling for numerous organizations, including both tax-exempt and for-profit companies. She is recognized as a leading corporate lawyer in the region’s nonprofit space, having worked on many transformative projects and transactions in the sector, representing an array of community-based and arts-based nonprofit organizations and private foundations. Prior to joining the firm, she served as in-house counsel for a publicly traded company.

In addition to being a trusted advisor to clients, Tillapaugh brings significant firm management experience, having played an instrumental role in some of the firm's most consequential business decisions, serving on various management committees, including the Compensation Committee, Oversight and Executive Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, Shareholders Council, and Diversity & Inclusion Planning Committee. She previously spearheaded the firm's Associates Committee and chaired both the Talent Management and Recruiting and Hiring committees.

“Christie has consistently demonstrated her leadership strength and her aptitude for change management in multiple firm roles over the last several years,” said Carson. “We are convinced that she will take the firm to greater heights and enhance our service platform as we strive to meet the demands of our clients and the communities we serve.

About Christie Tillapaugh

Family: Husband, Andrew; sons, Jack and Ryan, daughter, Emily

Education: The Pennsylvania State University, Bachelor of Arts in International Politics, 1999; The Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University, Juris Doctorate, 2002. Has Served on the Board of Advisors of Penn State Law while also mentoring law students. Recognizing the importance of giving back and establishing opportunities to help advance the leaders of tomorrow, in 2021, Tillapaugh made a personal gift to Penn State Law to establish an endowment for students who participate in the Public Interest Law Fund’s Summer Fellowship program, which promotes the practice of law in the public interest arena. The endowment has since been named the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Public Interest Law Award at Penn State Law

Community involvement: Outside of Tillapaugh’s day-to-day legal practice, she is passionately involved with various mentoring and diversity and inclusion-related initiatives, both at the firm and in the local community, including serving as the leader of an Allyship Pod that is focused on uniting global colleagues to engage in conversations about Allyship in the workplace. In addition, she Co-chaired the Gender Equity Committee of the Allegheny County Bar Association, where she was a founder and an architect of the award-winning ACBA WILL (Women’s Institute for Leadership in Law) program, designed to advance the leadership of women in law firms. She most recently completed the Allyship Readiness Program offered by the Pittsburgh Legal Diversity and Inclusion Coalition. She also recently joined the board of the Pittsburgh Women’s Alliance.  In 2021, she was honored with the Dentons International Women's Day Above and Beyond Award and in 2019, was a recipient of the Pittsburgh Business Times Women of Influence Award, which honors the region's most influential business women at for-profit companies, nonprofits and government entities.

About Dentons

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