Christopher A. Klem was born on November 1, 1952, in Morristown, New Jersey, the son of Walter and Mary Elizabeth Klem. Morristown is the county seat of Morris County, a community in northern New Jersey near the New York metropolitan area.
Klem received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College in 1974, graduating magna cum laude and becoming a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the academic honor society. He was also recognized as a John Harvard Scholar and won a Book Prize. Harvard College, established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States.
Klem continued his studies at Harvard Law School, where he earned a Juris Doctor magna cum laude in 1977 and was admitted to the bar that year. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Its case method of instruction, introduced in the 1870s under Dean Christopher Columbus Langdell, became a model for most American law schools.
Klem's professional career developed almost entirely at Ropes & Gray. The firm was founded in Boston in 1865 by John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray, both Harvard Law School graduates. By the 1960s it had grown to nearly seventy-five attorneys, and it readopted the name Ropes & Gray in 1961 after several earlier variants.
Klem joined the firm as an associate in 1977 and remained in that role until 1985. He became a partner in 1985, and his practice focused on representing institutional investors, including endowments, investment managers, hedge funds, and private equity funds. He also represented broker-dealers, insurance companies, and other financial intermediaries, and advised universities on governance, endowment management, and broader financial issues. He has co-headed the firm's universities and colleges practice and served as a director of several client-related investment and biomedical entities.
Klem's firm biography describes his work arranging environmentally focused pro bono legal projects. In 2024 the firm announced that its attorneys had received a Forest Champion Award from a New England forestry conservation group for work on a forestry investment fund; the announcement identified him as of counsel. The firm later described him as a retired partner.
Klem's bar membership includes the American Bar Association, a voluntary national association of lawyers and law students founded in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1878. The association sets academic standards for law schools and formulates model ethical codes for the profession, and its committees address specialized fields such as antitrust, litigation, and intellectual property.
He is also a member of the Boston Bar Association. The modern association was established in Boston in 1876 as a reconstitution of the Suffolk County Bar Association, with goals that included promoting social contact among members and maintaining high standards of professional duty. Sidney Bartlett served as its first president.
Klem's civic and board service extends to conservation and educational institutions. He is a director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, a conservation organization, and serves on the investment committee of Wellesley College, a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts. His earlier roles included service as an overseer of the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, a trustee of St. Mark's School, a vice president and trustee of the Fenn School, and an advisor to the Chewonki Foundation. He was also a former commissioner of the Lincoln Conservation Commission, a municipal body concerned with local conservation matters.
Past chair of the Committee on Insurance Regulation, ABA Section on Administrative Law and Practice
American Bar Association , United States
Boston Bar Association , United States
Belmont Hill Club , United States
Boston Economics Club , United States
Director
Massachusetts Audubon Society , United States
Member of the Investment Committee
Wellesley College , United States
Overseer
DeCordova Museum , United States
Trustee
St. Mark's School , United States
Vice President and Trustee
Fenn School , United States
Advisor
Chewonki Foundation , United States
Former commissioner
Lincoln Conservation Commission , United States
Klem married Susan Mary Morser on August 21, 1976. The couple have two children, Eric Christopher and Catherine Mary. He is the son of Walter and Mary Elizabeth Klem.
