Our Team

Drawing upon 25+ years of litigation experience, as well as his extensive training as a mediator and collaborative lawyer, Chris Osborn has helped parties reach amicable resolutions in hundreds of disputes involving complex legal issues and difficult interpersonal dynamics. Chris is most frequently sought out for complicated disputes involving:

• Real estate and construction contracts
• Separation and Divorce
• Child custody
• Equitable distribution
• Former cohabitants or life partners
• Allegations of professional malpractice or breach of fiduciary duties
• Contested wills and estates

Chris was certified by the N.C. Dispute Resolution Commission as a Superior Court mediator in 2009, and in 2016 he was among the first cohort of North Carolina lawyers to be trained in Collaborative Law Practice for civil disputes. In 2021, he was also certified by the N.C. Dispute Resolution Commission as a Family Financial Settlement Mediator.

From 2012-2015, Chris was an Assistant Professor at the Charlotte School of Law, where he taught “Interviewing, Client Counseling, and Negotiations,” along with first year classes in Contracts and Civil Procedure. Since 2015, he has owned and operated his own law firm, known as Osborn Conflict Resolution and now Osborn Family Law. He joined the Charlotte Panel of Miles Mediation and Arbitration in November 2022.

• North Carolina State Bar, 1995
• All North Carolina State District, Superior, and Appellate Courts
• Western District of North Carolina, 1995
• Eastern District of North Carolina, 1995
• Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, 1996
• Middle District of North Carolina, 1997

• University of Virginia School of Law, J.D., 1995
  Honors/Awards: Hardy Cross Dillard Scholarship (full tuition plus stipend)
  Activities: Virginia Law Review — Editorial Board (1993-94); Articles Review Board (1994-95); Law Christian Fellowship; Libel Show (writer and performer)
• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, B.A. with highest distinction, 1992
  Honors/Awards: James M. Johnston Scholarship (full financial need award); James L. Whitfield Prize for best Undergraduate English Honors Thesis (1992); Phi Beta Kappa, UNC Honors Program, National Merit Scholar, Dean’s List

• Charlotte Collaborative Divorce Professionals (Marketing Committee, 2022-2024)
• Academy of Professional Family Mediators
• International Academy of Collaborative Professionals
• Mecklenburg County Bar (Grievance Committee, 2013-16; Fee Dispute Committee, 2016-18; Professionalism, LawyerLife, & Culture Comm., 2003-2010)
• North Carolina Bar Association (Professional Vitality Committee, 2021-24 (Vice-Chair); Dispute Resolution Section)
• Global Collaborative Law Council
• North Carolina Civil Collaborative Law Association
• American Bar Association (Dispute Resolution Section)

• “Trauma-Informed” Mediation: 6 Key Strategies for Attorneys and Mediators, July 2023
• “N.C. Business Court Ventures into Construction Lien Law” Change Order, Monthly Bulletin of the NCBA Construction Law Section (June 2010)
• “Construction Disputes: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?” Change Order, Monthly Bulletin of the NCBA Construction Law Section (March and June, 2007)
• Law for Physicians: An Overview of Medical Legal Issues (American Medical Association Press, 2000) (co-authored with The Hon. Carl Horn III and Don Caldwell, Esq.)
• Numerous articles in Mecklenburg County Bar Newsletter regarding Quality of Life and Interpersonal Communications Skills for Attorneys

The following are just a few examples of the types of cases Chris Osborn has successfully mediated to a resolution:

• Family members’ will caveat and challenge to real estate deed (as well as financial transactions conducted pursuant to a power of attorney), all contested on grounds of lack of capacity and undue influence allegedly exerted over the principal by his in home caregivers.

• Partition sale proceeding regarding real property owned as tenants-in-common and competing business ownership claims between cohabiting former domestic partners (following their high conflict breakup)

• Complex equitable distribution of marital assets, involving real property, business interests, and multiple retirement accounts

• Resolution of corporate control claims and division of assets, liabilities, and customers between two founding co-owners of profitable business

• Contract dispute arising out of a business acquisition, including a claim for $300K unpaid purchase price and counterclaims for breach of contract, fraud in the inducement of the contract, and alleged violations of non-compete by seller.
• Racial and gender discrimination claim under Title VII by high-ranking federal government official vs. Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Safety Administration.
• Complex commercial landlord-tenant dispute involving claims and counterclaims for breach of implied warranty of habitability, breach of contract, unfair and deceptive trade practices, fraud in the inducement, conversion, and unjust enrichment.
• Hotly contested will caveat action involving dispute over which of decedent’s two wills was valid and in effect at the time of his death.

• Charlotte Premier Soccer League (2014-2024; Team Manager or Co-Manager, 2015-2022)
• Harris YMCA (Girls Rec League Soccer Coach, U-8 through U-14, 2008-2015)
• Warehouse 242 Church (2022-present; Men’s Ministry Leadership team)
• West Charlotte Church (2019-2022; Worship team)
• Hope Community Church (2002-2019; Ruling Elder, Community group leader)
• Uptown Church (1996-2002; Ruling Elder, Life group leader)

Lacey Algarra is a Charlotte-area native and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied History, Archaeology, and Spanish. Since graduating, Lacey’s sense of adventure and interest in other cultures has led her to Greece, the Unted Kingdom, Costa Rica, and Spain. She worked as an English teacher, a SCUBA diving instructor, a historic tour guide, and a project manager before developing her career as a Legal Assistant/Paralegal.

As a Family Law Legal Assistant and Paralegal, Lacey finds meaning in helping clients navigate significant and often overwhelming life changes. She is self-starting, passionate, and a people-person. She operates out of genuine empathy, is a skilled active listener, and strives to make every client she interacts with feel heard and cared for. Lacey works in Family Law because she believes in the importance of a strong and supportive family, whatever it may look like, and enjoys helping coparents put in place the best principles and processes to help the newly re-forming family function as well as possible under the circumstances.

Lacey is fluent in Spanish thanks to years of studying, travelling in Spanish-speaking countries, and perhaps most importantly, having married a Spaniard! She is grateful and honored to have a way to use her language skills to serve the Spanish-speaking community here in Charlotte.

In her free time, Lacey enjoys gardening, cooking, and doing yoga.