David C. Chapin

Education

Chapin earned a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from Lafayette College in 1976 and held membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Lafayette was founded in 1826 by citizens of Easton, Pennsylvania, as a liberal arts college named after the Marquis de Lafayette. The college became coeducational in 1970, several years before Chapin graduated, and it was among the first American colleges to offer instruction in engineering.

Chapin received a Juris Doctor cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1980. The school was founded in 1817 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United States. Its case method of studying judicial decisions became a model widely adopted by American law schools. Chapin was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1980 and to the New York bar in 2011.

Career

Chapin joined Ropes & Gray LLP as a partner in 1989. The firm was founded in Boston in 1865 by John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray, both Harvard Law graduates. During the Great Depression it developed a bankruptcy practice, its labor practice grew out of the New Deal, and the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission added financial reporting to its services. By the 1960s the firm had grown to nearly 75 attorneys, and it now employs more than 1,500 lawyers across several countries.

Within the firm, Chapin served as partner and head of its corporate department. He specialized in securities law and in mergers and acquisitions involving public companies, and he also represented clients in financial and strategic transactions. Public-company securities work is governed by federal securities regulation administered by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which made disclosure and corporate governance central to such transactions.

Chapin served on the firm's policy committee from 2004 to 2019. From 2013 to 2019 he was managing partner of Ropes & Gray. He later became managing partner emeritus and is now a retired partner.

Membership

Chapin is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic honor society in the United States, which was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary and recognizes excellence in the liberal arts and sciences. He is also a member of the Business Law Section of the Massachusetts Bar Association, the voluntary state bar association for Massachusetts lawyers, and of the New York Bar Association, a voluntary association of lawyers practicing in New York.

• Phi Beta Kappa , United States

• Member of the Business Law Section

  Massachusetts Bar Association , United States

• New York Bar Association , United States

References

• David C. Chapin, Ropes & Gray LLP profile The firm's profile of Chapin documents his education at Lafayette College and Harvard Law School, his admissions in Massachusetts and New York, his firm leadership roles, his practice focus, and his bar and business law memberships.
• FindLaw lawyer directory profile of David C. Chapin A Boston lawyer directory profile identifying Chapin's practice in corporate governance, life sciences mergers and acquisitions, and his affiliation with Ropes & Gray LLP in Boston.