Christopher W. Holmes
General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary
Mr. Christopher W. Holmes became general counsel for Baylor University in 2016 after having served in the Office of General Counsel since 2002. Prior to coming to Baylor, he was general counsel at Dallas Baptist University and practiced law as a trial attorney with Cowles and Thompson, P.C., in Dallas, Texas.
Mr. Holmes earned a BA in political science from Baylor in 1988. He earned a law degree, with honors, from the University of Texas at Austin in 1991.
Mr. Holmes has served in a number of leadership positions in higher education. He served on the board of directors of the National Association of College and University Attorneys from 2014 to 2017. He has chaired several committees for NACUA, including the committee on legal education. In 2011, Mr. Holmes received NACUA’s First Decade Award, which recognizes members who have provided outstanding service to NACUA and to the practice of higher education law during their first ten years of service in higher education. Mr. Holmes currently serves as president and a director of the Big Bend Conservancy, a nonprofit organization benefitting Big Bend National Park.
He and his wife, Dawn (BSEd ’89, MTS ’23), have four children: Elise (BA, MA ’20), Ridley (BBA ’20), Celia (BA, MAT ’23), and Clara, a student at Live Oak Classical School, where Dawn teaches. He and his family are members of Harris Creek Baptist Church.