Christopher Martini Battista is a licensed attorney with 15 years of political and legal experience. He currently manages his own law practice that specializes in contracts, commercial litigation, and administrative law.   Mr. Battista was a counterterrorism legal analyst at The Investigative Project. There he provided counsel on legal issues related to terrorism such as; extrajudicial detention, immigration fraud, asset-freezing, the Patriot Act and use of torture. In addition, he was a subcontractor to the Special Inspector General of Iraqi Reconstruction (SIGIR) in the Iraqi reconstruction effort, where he advised on government procurement matters and the status of Iraqi Reconstruction contracts.   Mr. Battista has also held a position at MCI in their law and public policy department. In this role he assisted their government relations team and political action committee (MCIPAC) in tracking and researching key telecommunications issues and analyzing electoral data during the 1996 election cycle. During his tenure, he was instrumental in helping MCI to influence the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.   Mr. Battista attended California Western School of Law in San Diego, CA and graduated at the top of his class in administrative law and legal jurisprudence and criminal law. During law school he interned at Carter, Fullerton and Hayes, a firm that specializes in contracts and property law; and McKenna and Cunneo, a nationwide firm with expertise in insurance recovery litigation. Mr. Battista also published three legal papers: The Constitutionality of the V-Chip, Executive Disclosures to Congress, and Long-term Political Viability of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).   Mr. Battista graduated with honors from Drew University in Madison, NJ with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Political Science. As a Washington, DC area native from Gaithersburg and Potomac, MD, Mr. Battista was exposed to politics at an early age and took advantage of the many summer internship opportunities available on Capitol Hill while in college. He has served as a public relations and government intern for Burson-Marsteller, Dutko and Associates (Dutko Worldwide) and MFS Telecom.   He is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia and passed the Virginia bar in November of 2008. License to practice law in Virginia is expected in September 2009.