Meet Chris Madel
Chris Madel grew up in Waseca, Minnesota with his parents, Peter Jr. and Mary Ann, and three older siblings. While Chris was growing up, his father served as longtime Chairman of the Waseca County Republicans, introducing Chris to conservative thought and the importance of civic engagement. Chris’s father also owned and operated a nursing home where Chris worked for 10 years—on many weekends during the school year and full-time during the summer (his Dad prohibited him from working anywhere else!). Chris was an altar boy at Sacred Heart Church in Waseca until he graduated from Waseca High School. Some of his favorite memories include his extended discussions with Father John Kunz regarding Reagan-era politics.
Chris then attended Macalester College in St. Paul. While there, he majored in political science and economics, graduating magna cum laude and winning the Wall Street Journal Student Achievement Award for his senior honors thesis: Takeovers: Insider Trading, Poison Pills, and Market Efficiency. He graduated from Macalester as Phi Beta Kappa. Chris then attended Michigan Law School, where he worked part-time and graduated cum laude.
After earning his law degree, Chris returned to Minnesota where he worked for a Minneapolis law firm. Chris then briefly served at the Department of Justice in Washington D.C. before returning to Minnesota where he has practiced law ever since. After serving on the elected Executive Board and as Chairman of the Business Litigation Department for a national law firm, Chris started his own firm, MADEL PA, a litigation and investigations boutique in 2017.
Over the course of his 32-year legal career, Chris has represented clients in many complicated and high-profile investigations and lawsuits (civil and criminal), regularly trying cases before juries and judges. Notable clients include State Trooper Ryan Londregan, Liz Collin and Alpha News, Kirby Puckett, and the Special Litigation Committee of the Fiesta Bowl. Chris has been regularly selected as a “Top 100 Super Lawyer,” and has won a Minnesota Lawyer “Attorney of the Year” award five times (2011, 2012, 2013, 2023, and 2024). The Minnesota media has said Madel “pursues fraud with tenacity of linebacker” and has “earned a growing national profile as the lawyer companies and organizations turn to when they think they’re being ripped off.” More about Chris and his career may be found here.
Chris lives in the western Hennepin County suburbs with his wife, Paula, two daughters, both of whom attend public schools, the family’s senior dog, who is Paula’s shadow, and two stealthy cats.
