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Chris Couch photograph

Christopher P. Couch

Partner

Areas Of Focus
Finance and LendingCorporate and Securities

Chris Couch works with banks and privately held companies' executives on strategic business decisions, helping them think through how pulling one lever affects the operation of the whole machine. His experience working in the banking industry and ability to think in multiple directions allows him to minimize risk and align clients’ operations with their goals.

Financial institutions rely on Chris' thoughtful approach to make informed, practical decisions on both traditional and cutting-edge issues, including those at the intersection of privacy and technology. With up-front planning, he helps banks and FinTechs minimize commercial loss and regulatory risk when it comes to:

    • Payment system operations
    • Privacy programs, information security and data breach response
    • Anti-money laundering programs
    • Affiliate transactions
    • Asset and bank sales and purchases, commercial borrowing, FinTech partnerships and vendor agreements

Chris holds the IAPP’s Fellow of Information Privacy (FIP) distinction, having earned both the Certified Information Privacy Professional/United States (CIPP/US) and CIPM Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) designations. He is also an ACAMS-designated Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS).

Chris also structures corporate, financial and commercial arrangements for private companies in a range of industries, from real estate to hospitality to technology. He’s experienced in setting up joint ventures and raising equity capital for clients, as well as designing financing plans to build new facilities or break into new markets.

When they work with Chris, clients find a partner that shares their investment in their business and keeps an eye on challenges they may face in the future. Chris studied the structure of private capital markets and even earned his MBA to better understand the issues faced by company leaders and their shareholders, and holds industry-leading certifications in information privacy and privacy program management. He builds relationships with each client, taking every opportunity to develop an institutional knowledge of their operations, culture and regulatory environment. This informs his counsel, speeding up his search for solutions and steering clients clear of possible missteps.

Chris knows how one decision cascades across operations in complex systems. In addition to decades spent advising market leaders across the country, this understanding is driven by his early careers as a retail banker and as in-house counsel for an industrial developer.

Chris chairs Phelps' Innovation Committee and serves on its Technology and Operations committees.

Insights

Recognition

  • Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business - Banking and Finance
  • Banking and Finance Law (2025), Financial Services Regulation Law (2016-2025), Commercial Finance Law (2017-2025), The Best Lawyers in America
  • AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell
  • Best of the Bar, Birmingham Business Journal (2021)
  • Top 40 Under 40, Birmingham Business Journal (2013)
  • Banking Law and Corporate Finance Top Attorney, Birmingham Magazine (2012-2014)
  • Alabama Super Lawyers Rising Stars list, Super Lawyers (2011)

Education

  • Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management, M.B.A., 2015
  • Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, Private Capital Markets Certificate, 2012
  • University of Alabama School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude, 2002
  • Birmingham Southern College, B.A., English, 1995

Credentials

  • Alabama
  • Florida

Memberships and Affiliations

Professional

  • American Bar Association – Middle Market and Banking Law Committees
  • Alabama State Bar
  • The Florida Bar
  • International Association of Privacy Professionals 
  • Alabama Bankers Association

Civic

  • Alabama Episcopal Foundation - Immediate Past Chair
  • Episcopal Diocese of Alabama’s Department of Camp McDowell 

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