Chris Barta received a B.A. from Saint John’s University (the smaller one) in Minnesota, and his law degree from Mitchell Hamline School of Law, also in Minnesota.
Legal research. Chris worked as a reference librarian while in law school, then further honed his research skills during a long stint at Thomson West (now Thomson Reuters) in Minnesota. Starting as a reference attorney for Westlaw, Chris was certified as a topical specialist in multiple practice areas, and provided “on the fly” user-level support for customers doing online research. During this period, Chris became aware of Nolo Press; he quips that he referred “literally hundreds” of callers to Nolo’s self-help publications.
Teaching research. Chris was eventually promoted to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he worked as a Westlaw account representative and later an account manager for government agencies and large law firms—including the top ten largest law firms in the county. Chris was responsible for training law firm summer and new associates on how to do research and also worked closely with librarians on general research issues. He also conducted research seminars at Stanford Law School, the Internal Revenue Service, and many California state agencies.
Nolo. From 2015 to 2022 Chris worked for Nolo full time as a researcher and online author, where he developed a deep passion for the topic of real-estate, primarily landlord-tenant issues. Chris says "property law is fascinating because, even though it's steeped in ancient English tradition, it's also evolving at a dizzying speed."
In 2022 Chris became the Compliance and Modernization Manager for the Marin Housing Authority, where he wrangles with regulations to help provide quality affordable housing for low-income residents.
Chris’s goal has always been to take the complex and make it simple.