They’ve Got Next: The 40 Under 40 - Christian Bromley of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner

Please describe two of your most substantial, recent wins in practice.

I have defended clients for nearly a decade in a series of environmental tort matters related to the alleged presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in water systems. This work began during my junior associate years and has involved some of the first mass PFAS-related litigation filed in the Southeast.

In recent years, I have led various facets of these disputes—from discovery tracing back more than 40 years to depositions and dispositive pre-trial motions. We successfully resolved the first three of these disputes for our clients in 2022 and 2023. These matters have been pivotal in my career—including my current role as co-chair of the firm’s Toxic Tort Practice.

I also am deeply committed to my pro bono practice and have contributed over 1,000 hours to Georgia voting rights work, a Louisiana capital post-conviction appeal, and LGBTQ+ equality. In 2020, I led emergency briefing with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to prevent the purge of nearly 15,000 voters from the Fulton County rolls just weeks before the general election.

The impact of this work felt particularly palpable when the state-wide margin in Georgia for that year’s presidential race was just shy of only 12,000 votes. Wonderful.

What is the most important lesson you learned as a first-year attorney and how does it inform your practice today?

Everyone deserves respect. You never know when you will need the help of those around you and it may very well be someone whose title is less prestigious than yours or even your adversary.

Within hours of my first day at BCLP, I learned that the business services team—my assistant, the receptionist, the file clerk, the facilities manager—had many more of the answers to my naïve, junior lawyer questions; not the senior partners. I soon found myself filing a huge brief with seemingly endless exhibits at 11 o’clock at night with just my assistant and a paralegal.

What I learned in these early moments became ingrained in my approach to practice. These were the team members who ultimately held so many of the answers, the institutional knowledge, and the ability to help me “get the job done.”

I also came to learn that this lesson extends beyond your own organization. For litigators in particular, respect must cross to the other side of the “v.” In my first weeks as a lawyer, I joined a senior colleague for a meet and confer.

Opposing counsel took a blusterous approach to the conference, but my colleague neutralized this tone with a calm, kind demeanor. While litigators must be zealous advocates for their clients, there is immeasurable benefit to respectful relationships with adversaries.

How do you define success in your practice?

Continued fulfillment in my practice is success.

Oxford Dictionary defines fulfillment as “the achievement of something desired.”

The practice of law is far from easy. It comes with significant pressures. Practice is so very often the largest part of a lawyer’s daily life. But this career can be so rewarding. The reward of collaborating with a team of colleagues to achieve great results for a client. The reward of making a difference in the lives of pro bono clients. The reward of simply becoming a member of this time-honored profession.

It has become a central part of my advice to junior lawyers that they seek this fulfillment and be mindful when it seems to be missing. Fulfillment in your work—on the whole—should always outweigh its pressures.

What are you most proud of as a lawyer?

Giving a voice to others through pro bono work.

Within six months of coming out to my family, and while grappling with my own LGBTQ+ identity, I found myself staffed as a summer associate on a BCLP team, in partnership with Lambda Legal, representing multiple plaintiffs in a high-profile challenge to Georgia’s then binding constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

My family had only known I was gay for a few months and there I was standing among a dream team of lawyers working to secure the right to marry for same-sex couples. Ten years later, our lead plaintiffs are—by pure coincidence—my next-door neighbors.

I found immeasurable pride in pro bono advocacy work that summer. Perhaps more impactful, this work inspired my commitment to pro bono practice for the decade that followed. Since joining the firm, I have devoted well over 1,000 hours to pro bono matters, from capital post-conviction litigation in Louisiana to voting rights and gerrymandering disputes across Georgia.

I do this work because it matters, but also because some of the first lawyers I ever came to know—my mostly straight, cisgender summer associate supervisors—did work for people not like themselves. They did it for people like me, a recently out gay man who has now been married to my husband for over seven years, and so many others in the LGBTQ+ Community.

Who is your greatest mentor in the law and what have they taught you?

Angelia Duncan is my greatest mentor. Angelia has been a friend, mentor, supervisor, and now my law partner for the past decade. She stood with me at my law school graduation and held the first toast for my promotion to partner.

If I were to distill all she has taught me over 10 years, there are two guiding principles:

First, find your home. Angelia helped me decide between two summer associate positions 11 years ago. She gave me the same advice she received from her late father when she chose her first law firm job: “find a place that would be equally as invested in teaching me how to practice as it would be in me simply being a good person.” I found that place and rely on this advice in many aspects of life—keep learning and do good.

Second, find your voice. As a diverse woman and past chair of the firm’s Lawyers of Color Affinity Group, Angelia knows in many more ways than I how challenging it is to be different in a professional industry.

She often reminds me: “having a seat at the table does not necessarily mean your voice is heard. Sometimes we have to speak louder, or speak differently, to accomplish a goal.” She has helped me find that voice for 11 years—both personally and professionally.

Tell us your two favorite songs on your summer music playlist.

“On the Beach,” Chris Rae: a Chris Rae CD lived in my dad’s car much of my childhood. Nothing reminds me more of summer vacation. And “Wannabe,” Spice Girls: Again, all about the nostalgia of ‘90s childhood summers!

Christian Bromley on a visit to his in-laws in Suzhou, China during Thanksgiving, 2023.

Credit: Christian Bromley and Jonathan Hurtarte/Bloomberg Law