Christopher M. Mason

United States

Nixon Peabody LLP
55 West 46th Street
New York, NY 10036-4120
United States

Tel: +1 212.940.3017

Email: cmason@nixonpeabody.com
Web: www.nixonpeabody.com

Professional Biography

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, and industrial companies in state or federal trial and appellate courts, in domestic arbitration, and in regulatory inquiries.

The deputy head of the firm’s Class Action team, Chris is also a member of the firm’s Cybersecurity and Privacy team and leads the firm’s Arbitration team of over 150 attorneys. He has extensive experience in mediation, both representing parties and as a neutral, in a wide variety of cases.

Chris is a Member of the Firm’s Pro Bono Committee. He is also a Former Member of the Firm’s Policy Committee.

My primary goal as a lawyer is to help businesses manage the risks and outcomes of significant disputes and to help them develop management, sales, and governance processes to avoid those risks and outcomes in the first place.

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 representative.

The Arbitration, Mediation and ADR Practice

ADR solutions, particularly arbitration and mediation proceedings, can protect you and reduce costs. Rely on our experience and efficiency in not only handling your proceeding, but also to plan for such solutions before a dispute materializes. This includes the drafting of arbitration, mediation, and ADR clauses.

Nearly half of our attorneys firmwide have represented a party in ADR or drafted an ADR clause (or both).

Collective intelligence gained from thousands of proceedings, representing parties and as neutrals, informs our strategy to resolve your dispute. We handle ADR prosecution and defense nearly every day for clients, including before JAMS, AAA, ICDR, CPR, and FINRA.

Representative Experience

  • Orsi v. SP Plus Corp., No. CACE 2298 (Fla. Cir. Ct.), and Orsi v. SP Plus Corp., No. 18-cv-62589-PMH (S.D. Fla.). In these Florida class actions under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, (and its amendment by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act), Chris was brought in after initial efforts at resolution had failed. In addition to reframing the litigation for our client, he was able to construct an exit strategy in the Orsi case which has resolved the plaintiff’s claims, multiple cross-claims, and a collateral declaratory judgment action, all for less than continued costs of litigation.
  • Miller v. HCP Trumpet Investments, LLC, No. 107, 2018 Del. LEXIS 429 (Del.). In this case, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed a significant decision of first impression that Chris had won in the Chancery Court, Miller v. HCP & Co., C.A. No. 2017-0291-EG, 2018 Del. Ch. LEXIS 40 (Del. Ch.). The Miller cases involved the extent to which an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing can be used—or not—to substitute for fiduciary duties that had been waived in a limited liability company agreement.
  • Cadia Capital Advisors LLC v. Fagu LLU, No. 22-cv-05847 (VM) (S.D.N.Y.). This involved a successful motion to dismiss and compel the plaintiff, a FINRA member, to proceed by arbitration in a commercial case where it had not expected such an outcome because of the subject matter involved.
  • Hildene Opportunities Master Fund, Ltd. v. The Bank of N.Y. Mellon, No. 18-cv-08768 (NRB) (S.D.N.Y.). In this, and other similar cases such as Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Ams. as Trustee v. LaCrosse Fin. Prods., LLC, No. 08 CV 0955 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y.), Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Ams. v. Elliot Int’l, L.P., No. 09 CV 5242 (WHP) (S.D.N.Y.), and U.S. Bank N.A. v. Black Diamond CLO 2005-1 Adviser, L.L.C., 11 Civ. 5675 (JSR) (S.D.N.Y.), Chris has pioneered the use of federal statutory interpleader in combination with a little-known federal lien enforcement statute to provide world-wide quasi in rem jurisdiction to resolve disputes over the interpretation of billions of dollars of structured debt products.
  • Ackal v. Centennial Beauregard Cellular, L.L.C., 700 F.3d 212 (5th Cir.). In a decision of first impression in any court, the Fifth Circuit reversed certification of a class in part because of inclusion of governmental entities as absent class members. Chris represented the successful defendants, subsidiaries of AT&T, in the trial court and on appeal.
  • Campbell v. Fast Retailing USA, Inc., No. 14-6752-MSG (E.D. Pa.). Here, Chris represented one of the world’s largest retailers in defending nationwide class actions claiming violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (particularly as amended by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act), winning dismissal as to all but one defendant and resolving the remaining individual claims for far less than continued defense costs.