Eric Stein is a licensed attorney and resort risk professional who has spent his career working for mountain owners and operators and as a legal generalist for businesses (construction, land and water rights, intellectual property, permitting, entitlements). He came up through the industry the right way: as a competitive ski racer, a World Cup and Olympic risk & safety volunteer, a freeride coach, and eventually as in-house counsel and risk executive for two of the industry's largest resort operators.
Eric came up through the ranks — seven years as a ski coach before transitioning into the legal department, where he spent eight years as in-house counsel for a five-resort, ski-culture-driven company that still operated with the intimacy and accountability of a family business. During that time, he drove consistency, accountability, and scalability across the company's entire legal function: standardizing contract practices across construction, lift purchases, vendor agreements, and special events; strengthening insurance requirements and risk transfer provisions company-wide; and helping grow the legal department as the operation expanded. He served as an in-house expert on special events, including FIS World Cup, adventure racing, and music festivals.
He later served as Vice President of Risk and Insurance at Intrawest — working across a portfolio of destination and independent resorts — where he managed a $7 million dollar insurance program, directed complex liability and workers' compensation claims, and negotiated risk-sensitive contracts spanning construction, special events, and resort operations.
After time in construction law and risk management consulting, Eric worked as a specialty insurance producer serving independent ski areas, bike shops, ski manufacturers, and outdoor recreation operators across the West. He knows these operations from the inside — their exposures, their culture, and what it actually takes to protect them.
Ridgeline Legal + Risk was founded to give independent outdoor recreation businesses access to that depth of experience — on a flexible, right-sized basis that makes sense for their scale.
