Christopher Todd Norris

Special Counsel

  • Christopher Todd Norris
  • Phone: +1 415 957 3307

    Import to Address Book

  • Duane Morris LLP
    Spear Tower
    One Market Plaza, Suite 2200
    San Francisco, CA 94105-1127
    USA

C. Todd Norris is a California trial lawyer with more than 25 years of litigation experience. Mr. Norris practices in the area of complex business litigation with an emphasis on representing financial institutions, including national and international banks and loan servicing companies in consumer lending litigation, class actions and other complex litigation. In addition, Mr. Norris advises insurance companies concerning their obligations under both liability and property insurance policies, and has defended insurers in coverage disputes and litigation.

Mr. Norris has broad business litigation experience, including real estate-related disputes concerning office buildings and other commercial, residential and mixed-use properties. Mr. Norris has represented developers, real estate agents, lenders, joint ventures, landowners, tenants, property managers and construction contractors in high-stakes real estate-related litigation.

In addition to representing clients in the financial services, insurance and real estate industries, Mr. Norris has handled numerous cases involving garden variety intellectual property disputes, including trademark, trade dress, trade secret, copyright and design patent claims.

Mr. Norris has also successfully represented clients before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the California Courts of Appeal.

Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Norris served as law clerk to the Hon. Edward J. Parker of the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

Mr. Norris is a cum laude graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School, where he was associate articles editor for the Minnesota Law Review, and a summa cum laude graduate of Cornell College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Areas of Practice

  • Consumer Finance Litigation

  • Class Action Litigation

  • Commercial Litigation

  • Intellectual Property Litigation

Admissions

  • California
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
  • U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
  • U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Education

  • University of Minnesota Law School, J.D., cum laude, 1995
    - Associate Articles Editor, Minnesota Law Review
  • Cornell College, B.A., summa cum laude, 1991
    - Phi Beta Kappa

Experience

  • Duane Morris LLP
    - Special Counsel, 2018-present

  • Bullivant Houser Bailey PC
    - Shareholder, 2008-2018
    - Associate, 1996-2008

  • Minnesota Court of Appeals
    - Law Clerk to the Hon. Edward J. Parker, 1995-1996

Professional Activities

  • International Trademark Association (INTA)

  • San Francisco Intellectual Property Law Association (SFIPLA)

  • Defense Research Institute (DRI)
    - Commercial Litigation

  • San Francisco Bar Association
    - Lawyer Referral and Information Services Committee, 2007-2011

  • Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF)

  • National LGBT Bar Association

  • American Bar Association

Representative Matters

  • Won a complete defense decision for a mortgage loan servicer from the San Francisco Superior Court against claims that it had negligently handled a loan modification application, with the judge finding that the client did not owe a duty of care to the plaintiff and that, even if it had, there was no evidence it had breached this duty.

  • Represented major retailer in successfully resolving putative class action alleging violations of the TCPA.

  • Obtained a judgment of dismissal for a major bank in Santa Clara Superior Court in a lawsuit alleging violations of the Fair Credit Report Act and the California Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act; the bank had been targeted in a fraud scheme whereby plaintiffs falsely alleged that they had paid off a loan and the bank had misreported the loan as delinquent.

  • Obtained a judgment of dismissal on claims for a major bank, which had faced millions of dollars in exposure, in Contra Costa Superior Court (California) following a new trial in a lender liability case involving real estate habitability, in a litigation which lasted nearly eight years.