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Christopher Duffy
Christopher Duffy
Partner — Shareholder Litigation & Enforcement
Partner — Shareholder Litigation & Enforcement

Christopher Duffy

Christopher Duffy
New York

The Grace Building
1114 Avenue of the Americas
32nd Floor
New York, New York 10036

Christopher Duffy

Experience Highlights

  • Lead counsel in ongoing arbitration proceedings for a major financial institution seeking more than $400 million of damages against a contractual counterparty

  • Lead counsel for an investment firm in expedited multi-court litigation over the control of two publicly traded REITs; prevailed against a motion for preliminary injunction and successfully resolved all claims

  • Lead counsel for two hedge funds in an expedited nine-witness trial in Delaware Court of Chancery over a disputed multi-billion dollar stock authorization by a public company

  • Lead counsel for an investment firm in proxy fight litigation over disputed board nominations; prevailed against multiple motions for injunctive relief and reached a successful settlement of all claims

  • Co-lead defense counsel for an international financial institution in a jury trial in New York state court; obtained a jury verdict eliminating all of the plaintiff’s claims for more than $100 million in damages and interest

  • Lead counsel for an investment bank in an expedited trial in the Delaware Court of Chancery, and a subsequent appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court, in a closely watched indemnification dispute; prevailed at trial and on appeal in Delaware, and subsequently prevailed in a related federal court lawsuit, and in multiple appeals to the Third Circuit

  • Lead counsel for a depositary institution in winning a ten-figure judgment in New York state court against a group of defaulted borrowers; obtained preliminary and permanent injunctions prohibiting the borrowers from transferring collateral intended to secure the disputed loans

  • Co-lead counsel for a private equity consortium in an expedited bench trial in Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Texas; obtained a full defense judgment dismissing all claims by equity holders seeking more than $700 million in damages from the private equity lender group

  • Lead counsel for an asset management firm in multi-forum litigation regarding five renewable energy projects

  • Counsel for a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist in defending New York state court lawsuit brought by political figure; obtained a full dismissal of all claims and an award of attorneys’ fees under New York’s Anti-SLAPP statute

  • Amicus curiae counsel for the Society for Corporate Governance in multiple U.S. Supreme Court and Second Circuit appeals regarding high-profile securities law issues

  • Counsel for an investment bank in civil litigation brought by the New York Attorney General relating to the operation of the bank’s equity trading platform

  • Lead counsel for an investment bank and several of its former employees in litigation and arbitration involving equity swaps

  • Co-lead counsel for a seed investor in Delaware Court of Chancery trial against a hedge fund; obtained a post-trial judgment that the hedge fund breached its fiduciary and contractual duties to the seed investor

  • Counsel in federal court jury trial involving claims brought by a public company seeking control of a private investment firm’s board of directors and billions of dollars of its assets; obtained jury verdict dismissing all claims

  • Lead counsel for creditor in the Title III PROMESA restructuring of Puerto Rico’s Sales Tax Financing Corporation in pursuing and successfully settling claims arising from an ISDA-governed interest rate swap agreement

  • Lead counsel in multiple external investigations by the New York Attorney General, the SEC, FINRA, and other government agencies

  • Won a rare appellate reversal of a jury verdict in a multibillion dollar fraud trial arising from a public-to-private M&A deal

  • Won a full dismissal of claims brought by a former top cable television executive asserting an ownership interest in a major cable network

  • Won the dismissal of all damages claims in a fiduciary duty lawsuit brought by a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee against a private equity firm and several of its principals, arising from the bankruptcy of one of the firm’s portfolio companies

Credentials

  • Columbia Law School, J.D., 2001 (Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar; Senior Editor, Columbia Law Review)
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, M.A., Communication Studies, 1997
  • University of Virginia, B.A., English, 1994
  • Prior to joining the firm, Chris was a partner in the New York office of a global litigation law firm.
  • Chambers USA, Litigation: General Commercial (New York), 2022 and 2023
  • Legal 500 U.S., Dispute Resolution: Corporate Investigations & White-Collar Criminal Defense, 2021–2023; Dispute Resolution: General Commercial Disputes, 2022 and 2023
  • Selected to the 500 Leading Litigators in America, Lawdragon, 2023 and 2024
  • Selected to the 500 Leading Lawyers in America, Lawdragon, 2022–2024
  • Selected to the New York Super Lawyers list, Super Lawyers (Thomson Reuters), 2013–2023
  • Board of Directors: New York Lawyers for the Public Interest
  • New York
  • U.S. District Court: Southern and Eastern Districts of New York
  • U.S. Court of Appeals: Second, Third, Ninth and Eleventh Circuits
  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • The Statutory Classification of Cable-Delivered Internet Service, 100 Columbia Law Review 1251, 2000