Ms. Crilley is a general practice attorney and collaborative lawyer in Iowa. After graduating from the University of Northern Iowa in 1979 with honors in Speech Communications and English, Ms. Crilley went on to attend the University Of Iowa College Of Law earning her J.D. degree, with distinction, in 1983. In addition to her 30 year law practice Ms. Crilley is also an accomplished Mediator as well as a nationally approved Mediation Trainer. Always trying to find alternative forms of dispute resolution, Chris became a member of the Academy of International Collaborative Professionals as well as a member of the Collaborative Lawyers of Eastern Iowa.

Ms. Crilley speaks to and trains various organizations on a variety of law and dispute resolution related topics such as “Team Building” and “Alternate Forms of Dispute Resolution”. Her professional writings include the training manual for both her 40-Hour Mediation Training as well as her 14-hour Collaborative Law Training; A Mediator’s Desk Guide to Mediation in Iowa; and two workbooks: Expectations in the Workplace; and Dispute Resolution: Text and Workbook for a college level course that she instructed.

In her spare time she enjoys exercising the creative side of her brain by writing adventure/mystery fiction books for children and adults. Chris and her husband have two children and several pets all of whom usually find themselves in her writings. Ms. Crilley’s writings contain a strong family theme mixed with action, suspense and humor. Chris enjoys traveling with her family and most of the locations they visit end up as the backdrops for many of her story lines.

Chris has quite a “to do” list of story lines and she always has an idea brewing for her next book in the Elle Crane or Leah Crandall series. She works on both series every chance she gets, much to the delight of her two girls.