Chris Mudd is Counsel in the State and Local Government Division. Mr. Mudd represents local, regional, and national clients in all stages of the land development process from beginning to end. He has experience with negotiating purchase contracts and lease agreements, analyzing title issues, assessing zoning and land use issues, navigating state and local administrative approval processes, and assisting clients with development project close-outs and permitting. Mr. Mudd also works on administrative appeals of land use decisions, from the local appeals board through the Maryland Court of Appeals, and lends support on other real estate related litigation. Before joining Venable, Mr. Mudd clerked for the Honorable J. Norris Byrnes of the Circuit Court for Baltimore County.

Significant Matters

Mr. Mudd assisted a Baltimore-area institution with obtaining a special exception and related development approvals for a proposed use in rural Baltimore County that garnered significant community opposition. Mr. Mudd assisted in writing briefs to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals and the Maryland Court of Appeals, and ultimately obtained a ruling affirming the grant of the special exception and development approvals in a reported opinion that has become the precedent for special exception law in Maryland.
Mr. Mudd assisted a Baltimore County institution with a multi-faceted defense of a number of development-related approvals before the Hearing Officer of Baltimore County, the Board of Appeals, the Circuit Court, the Court of Special Appeals, and the Court of Appeals.
Mr. Mudd assisted a commercial developer in obtaining entitlements for a fuel service station project in Baltimore County and successfully defended against appeals in the Circuit Court and Court of Special Appeals by a competitor station.

Activities
Mr. Mudd is a member of the State, Local Laws & Zoning Committee of the Baltimore County Bar Association and in 2011 served as the Chairman of the Committee.