Charles F. Mitchell

Chip Mitchell is the founder and principal of Blue Fence Advisors and a senior-level executive with more than thirty years of combined business and legal experience. He also serves as a private arbitrator and mediator and is a panel member with the American Arbitration Association.

Before he founded Blue Fence Advisors, Chip served as the General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer of one of the country's largest privately held EPC trade construction and government contracting companies. He has been responsible for managing the company's legal, risk management, and human resources departments, including corporate governance, compliance, contract management, bonding and insurance relationships, labor and employment issues, and dispute resolution. Chip has extensive experience managing complex government contract procurement, performance issues, and litigation. He also has experience managing M&A transactions on both the buyer and seller sides, including management of the diligence process and negotiating transaction documents.

Prior to his role as General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer, Chip was an associate attorney with Dunnells, Duvall, Bennett & Porter (subsequently merged into Holland + Knight), where his practice was devoted to construction and government contract counseling and litigation.  

Chip teaches contract management for the MCAA Institute for Project Management and frequently appears as a guest lecturer at American University in both undergraduate and law school classes on topics ranging from construction contracts to white-collar criminal investigations. He also often speaks before various industry and trade organizations, including the American Bar Association.

In the community, Chip has served on the boards of several charitable organizations. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors and Vice Chair of the Suburban Hospital Foundation, and he previously served as a member of the University of Maryland Alumni Association Board of Governors.  Chip has participated as a judge in local and regional mock trial competitions at the collegiate, high school, and middle school levels. He also served for nine years as the President of the Montgomery Youth Hockey Association, one of the largest non-profit youth hockey organizations in the United States.

Chip earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maryland and his Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center.  He is admitted to practice law in Maryland and the District of Columbia.  He is also admitted to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims; the U.S. District Courts for the District of Maryland and the District of Columbia; the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Fourth, District of Columbia and Federal Circuits; and the U.S. Supreme Court.  Chip is a member of the American Bar Association Section of Public Contract Law, and the Forum Committee on the Construction Industry, where he previously served as Vice-Chairman of the Subcontracts Committee.