Chris Mason is a litigator well known for his extensive experience in class action defense, arbitration, and complex financial disputes. He typically represents consumer products, technology, financial services, private equity or industrial companies in state or federal trial and appellate courts, in domestic arbitration and mediation or in regulatory inquiries. Chris also leads the firm’s Arbitration team of over 150 attorneys and has extensive experience in mediation, both representing parties and as a neutral.
My primary goal as a lawyer is to help businesses manage the risks and outcomes of significant disputes.
I have defended many large class or mass actions and prosecuted or defended significant cases in more than half of the states in the country, in numerous federal courts and before the American Arbitration Association, the International Centre for Dispute Resolution, and FINRA. I have successfully resolved well over 100 cases in mediation as a mediator or party.
Procedurally, the landscape on alternative dispute resolution is continuing to change. Having drafted some of the most widely used arbitration clauses in the country, I believe now is the time for many companies to reassess their contracts and dispute resolution programs.
Substantively, I see a resurgence in private antitrust theories, new emphasis on litigation over consumer products related to basic needs as opposed to products involving only discretionary spending (accompanied, however, by an evolving view of what is “basic”), constant risks with respect to the volume and use of data and a continuing need to simplify disputes over complex financial products for businesses.
Law Clerk to the Honorable J. Clifford Wallace, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Law360 | August 26, 2020
In this article on the Ninth Circuit’s decision which found that Amazon delivery drivers are exempt from mandatory arbitration, New York Complex Commercial Disputes partner Chris Mason is quoted for his thoughts on arbitration agreements and the importance of how choice of law clauses operate.
Law360 | October 14, 2018
In the following coverage, Rochester Corporate partner Lori Green, Complex Commercial Disputes partners Rick McGuirk and Carolyn Nussbaum, and New York City Complex Commercial Disputes partner Chris Mason analyze a key ruling by the Delaware Chancery Court that affirmed the existence of a material adverse event allowing German pharmaceutical company Fresenius to back down from a merger with Akorn, Inc.
Law360 | October 14, 2018
In the following coverage, Rochester Corporate partner Lori Green, Complex Commercial Disputes partners Rick McGuirk and Carolyn Nussbaum, and New York City Complex Commercial Disputes partner Chris Mason analyze a key ruling by the Delaware Chancery Court that affirmed the existence of a material adverse event allowing German pharmaceutical company Fresenius to back down from a merger with Akorn, Inc.
Law360 | September 20, 2018
This article mentions Complex Commercial Disputes partner Chris Mason as counsel in the Delaware Supreme Court affirmance in Miller v. HCP Trumpet Investments, LLC.
Law360 | September 12, 2018
This article describes Complex Commercial Disputes partner Chris Mason’s appellate argument before all five Delaware Supreme Court justices in Miller v. HCP Trumpet Investments, LLC.
Law360 | September 05, 2018
This article mentions Complex Commercial Disputes partners Chris Mason, Sarah André, Dan Deane and Seth Horvath as counsel for The New York Bar Foundation and The New York State Bar Association in an amicus brief—filed with the United States Supreme Court—in support of the approval by a California District Court, and the Ninth Circuit, of Google’s settlement involving a “cy pres” remedy in a privacy-related case.
Duke University School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude (Order of the Coif)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, B.A., summa cum laude (Phi Beta Kappa)
New York
District of Columbia
U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York
U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York
U.S. District Court, Western District of New York
U.S. District Court, District of the District of Columbia
U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
U.S. Supreme Court
Chris was selected, through a peer-review survey, for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© 2020 and 2021 in the field of Commercial Litigation.
Chris has been recognized each year from 2016 to the present for his exceptional standing in the legal community in the area of Business Litigation in New York Super Lawyers.
Chris has successfully represented clients in a number of substantial class actions and other complex cases in the past several years.
Chris is a member of the Board of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the private bar’s leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination. He has served on the Executive Advisory Committee of CPR: International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution. He is a member of the American Bar Association (Litigation Section, Committee on Commercial and Banking Litigation; Antitrust Section); the New York City Bar Association (former member of the Professional Discipline Committee, the Professional Responsibility Committee, the Consumer Affairs Committee; and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee); the New York State Bar Association (Commercial and Federal Litigation Section, Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee); and the Federal Bar Council. He has taught at the New York State Judicial Institute and is regularly appointed as a mediator by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He has also served on the mediation panel for the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Commercial Division. Chris is a former law clerk to the Honorable J. Clifford Wallace of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Chris serves and has served as an officer or board member for various educational, charitable, or religious organizations at the local and national level, ranging from a charity doing long-term recovery work on the Hurricane Sandy disaster in New York City (of which he was a founding officer), to a multibillion-dollar pension fund (of which he was the chair of the governance committee and a member of the executive committee), to one of the country’s largest protestant Christian denominations (of which he is the co-chair of its corporation, an entity dating back to 1799). He also serves as the Moderator of the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbytery of New York City, in effect the chief judge in New York City for ecclesiastical litigation in that denomination.