Christopher Robert Riano is a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School and President and CEO of the Center for Civic Education, the largest national civic education organization in the United States. Since 2021, he has also been part-time Of Counsel at Holland & Knight LLP. Riano has served the State of New York in a number of roles, including as a Commissioner of the New York State Gaming Commission; Assistant Counsel to the Governor for the Arts, Education, and Constitutional Law; and General Counsel for the New York State Liquor Authority; and as an Administrative Law Judge.
He serves on the Executive Committee and co-chairs the Strategic Planning Committee of the New York State Bar Association, and is on the Board of Visitors for the School of General Studies at Columbia University. He was previously the inaugural Chair of the Association’s LGBTQ Law Section and Chair of its LGBTQ People and the Law Committee. Riano co-authored Marriage Equality: From Outlaws to In-Laws (Yale University Press, 2020) with Yale Law School Professor William Eskridge Jr.
