Aaron M. Christensen

employment & labor law | cooperative law

Mr. Christensen regularly advises and defends cooperatives on matters arising under the various anti-discrimination and employment law statutes. He also provides experienced representation in the union context, including elections, grievance proceedings and collective bargaining.

Mr. Christensen is further distinguished through his unique concentration on the corporate, business and regulatory concerns facing cooperatives, including board and governance issues, cooperative/member relations, territorial issues, pole attachments, and cooperative subsidiary activities. His litigation experience in these areas includes defending complex fiduciary claims against cooperatives and their boards.

Bar Admissions 

• North Carolina (1995); South Carolina (1993); Tennessee (2017)

• All North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee State Courts

• United States District Courts for the Western, Middle and Eastern Districts of North Carolina; District of South Carolina; Eastern and Middle Districts of Tennessee

• United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit

Education 

• University of Virginia School of Law, 1993 

• Wake Forest University, 1990 (B.A. - Economics, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa)  

Industry Seminars 

• NRECA Workplace Law and Legal Seminar instructor

• Featured speaker for cooperative statewide and bar associations 

Peer Rating 

• Martindale-Hubbell AV® 5.0/5.0 (highest possible peer review rating for legal ability and ethical standards)  

W. Britton Smith, Jr.

Retired

W. Britton Smith, Jr., retired, was the senior partner of Smith and Christensen, PLLC for two decades. He started his career as a trial attorney with the National Labor Relations Board. Thereafter, Mr. Smith became an original partner in the Raleigh, North Carolina firm of Crisp, Bolch and Smith, where he developed a practice concentrating in employment, labor and the unique areas of corporate law affecting rural electric and telephone cooperatives. Mr. Smith originated and taught NRECA's first courses on labor and employment law and was also the creator and first editor of NRECA's Personnel Practice Pointers, a newsletter covering human resource topics.