Christopher "Todd" Norris

Special Counsel

  • Christopher
  • 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

Todd Norris is a seasoned trial attorney with more than 25 years of trial and other litigation experience. Mr. Norris practices in the area of complex business and consumer litigation with an emphasis on representing financial institutions, including national and international banks and loan servicing companies in consumer lending litigation, consumer 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.

Prior to developing his expertise in the defense of consumer class actions, Mr. Norris served as lead trial counsel defending a major international appliance manufacturer (including several of its brand names) in its products liability and breach of warranty litigation across the state of California. 

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

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

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

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 Actions

  • Business Litigation

  • Insurance Litigation

  • Products Liability/Breach of Warranty Claims

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. District Court for the Western District of Washington
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
  • Supreme Court of the United States

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

  • Defense Research Institute (DRI)
    - Commercial Litigation

  • San Francisco Bar Association
    - Lawyer Referral and Information Services Committee
    - Judiciary Committee
    - Litigation Section

  • International Trademark Association (INTA)

  • San Francisco Intellectual Property Law Association (SFIPLA)

  • Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF)

  • National LGBT Bar Association

  • American Bar Association

Representative Matters

  • Represented major retailer in achieving a settlement of a putative class action alleging violations of the TCPA in which the client had potential exposure of more than $90 million; client found the settlement terms to be highly favorable.

  • Successfully defended a global insurance company in litigation in which the plaintiff sought to hold its insurer liable for millions of dollars in losses, allegedly due to property damage caused by the COVID-19 virus.

  • Obtained judgment of dismissal for a large national bank following a new trial in a lender liability case involving real estate habitability. The bank faced millions of dollars of exposure in litigation that lasted nearly eight years. Following a dismissal of all claims against it, the bank was awarded more than half a million dollars in fees and costs.

  • Successfully obtained reversal from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals of an order by the Central District of California dismissing client’s multi-million dollar trade secret lawsuit based on district court’s improper conclusion that the case was barred by claim preclusion.
  • Won a court trial on behalf of a leading national co-location and data center real estate company, recovering three times the monetary damages initially sought by the client at the beginning of the trial and an award of all of its fees and costs.

  • Obtained settlement client found favorable on behalf of major appliance manufacturer in which Plaintiff sought to enjoin manufacturer’s sales of an entire line of refrigerators based on alleged breach of warranty claims and alleged violations of California’s Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act.

  • Complete defense victory for a mortgage loan servicer from the San Francisco Superior Court against claims that it had negligently handled a loan modification application, with the court concluding that the loan servicer did not owe a duty of care to the plaintiff and that, even if it did, there was no evidence it had breached any such duty.

  • Obtained favorable verdict for insurers in a case in which an office building owner’s property manager negligently handled major structural repairs to a luxury office building, which were allegedly earthquake-related but which in fact were performed primarily to remedy non-covered construction defects in the building. Following a jury verdict, insurers paid less than one-third of plaintiff’s final pre-trial settlement demand.

  • Settled a boating accident case, on terms the client found favorable, in which plaintiff had alleged catastrophic injuries by proving that the plaintiff, and not the boat owner/driver, was the cause of the accident.

  • 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.

Selected Publications