Christopher K. Ralston, JD, is a commercial litigation partner and office managing partner of the New Orleans office of Spencer Fane LLP. Mr. Ralston handles a range of commercial litigation and focuses on the areas of antitrust law, business torts, trade secret litigation and contract disputes, tax litigation, securities litigation and arbitration, direct selling, and intellectual property litigation. He also serves as a part of the firm’s appellate practice, having had successful appeals at all five of the Louisiana Courts of Appeal, as well as at the Fifth, Tenth, and the Federal Circuits of the federal Courts of Appeal. He earned his law degree from Tulane Law School and his undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary. After law school, he served as a judicial law clerk to U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon.

Mr. Ralston’s work in the legal field has received recognition in numerous forms from 2012–2021, including being named to the New Orleans CityBusiness’ Leadership in Law Hall of Fame, receiving both the Federal Bar Association’s New Orleans Chapter President’s Award and the Louisiana State Bar Association’s President’s Award, receiving the Louisiana Bar Foundation’s President’s Award, and receiving the David A. Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award from the Louisiana State Bar Association. Mr. Ralston is recognized by many peer review publications, including Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Louisiana Super Lawyers, The Best Lawyers in America, Marquis Who's Who in America, and New Orleans Magazine.

After recognizing the devastating impact of diabetes in New Orleans, Mr. Ralston joined the ADA’s New Orleans Community Leadership Board (CLB) in 2009, and he has served as chair of the CLB since 2014. He has served in several national and local volunteer roles, including as chairman of the ADA’s National Board of Directors from 2021–2022 and in 2025, and on the National Board of Directors since 2018. In 2011, Mr. Ralston was awarded the ADA’s National Chair’s Citation (the seventh time the honor was bestowed in the ADA’s history) for raising awareness about the prevalence of diabetes in Louisiana through his walk of 300 miles in 10 days across Louisiana.