Christopher A Seeger

Practice Areas

Catastrophic Injury, Environmental Litigation, Whistleblower Claims, and Product Liability

Career

A founding partner of Seeger Weiss, Chris is widely recognized as a highly innovative and accomplished plaintiff attorney. Chiefly known for multidistrict mass torts and class actions involving drug injury, toxic injury, and personal injury, Chris’s versatile practice also includes product liability, property damage, antitrust, third-party payer litigation, as well as consumer, insurance, and securities fraud.

Chris has led some of the most complex, groundbreaking, and high-profile litigations in the U.S., at both the state and federal level, including In re National Football League Players’ Concussion Injury Litigation, In re Volkswagen “Clean Diesel” Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, and In re Syngenta AG MIR 162 Corn Litigation. Often selected by the courts to serve as Lead Counsel, Co-Lead Counsel, Liaison Counsel, or member of the Plaintiffs’ Executive and/or Steering Committee in dozens of proceedings, Chris received the most multidistrict litigation (MDL) appointments of any lawyer between 2016 and 2019 according to a 2020 ALM study. His unique experience makes him a knowledgeable and capable litigator and highly regarded among his colleagues.

Chris is regularly quoted in the press as the plaintiff counsel in nationally and internationally prominent cases, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, CBS, CNBC, USA Today, Daily News, ESPN, and HBO Sports.

Chris started his career as a corporate defense lawyer representing the interests of big business. Struck by the imbalance of power between corporations and the individuals harmed by them, he left to become a plaintiff attorney. The son of a union carpenter who worked his way through school, Chris is a former amateur boxer and a current Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt. Now, whether working on a class action involving thousands of people against a multinational conglomerate or an individual case protecting one client’s rights, he fights with the same passion and conviction.

Professional Memberships

- American Bar Association

- Association of the Bar of the City of New York

- New Jersey State Bar Association

- New York State Trial Lawyers Association

- International Society of Barristers

- American Bar Foundation

- American Association for Justice

- Trial Lawyers for Public Justice

- Elected Member, American Law Institute

- Advisory Board, RAND Center for Catastrophic Risk Management and Compensation

- Advisory Board, Center on Civil Justice at New York University School of Law

- Advisory Council, Duke Law Center for Judicial Studies

- Dean’s Advisory Counsel, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

- Board of Trustees, Hunter College Foundation

- Pre-Law Advisory Board, Hunter College

- Co-General Counsel, Badge of Honor Memorial Foundation, 2008–present

Publications

- Presenter, “Future of Trial Practice,” The Future of Trial Practice in Pharmaceutical Drug and Device Litigation, American Bar Association, June 23, 2022

- Presenter, “Settlement and Resolution,” Advanced MDL Certificate, Bolch Judicial Institute, Duke Law, May 26, 2022

- Presenter, “Best Practices in Resolution and the Search for Closure,” Contemporary Issues in Complex Litigation, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, April 7, 2022

- Presenter, “The Centralization Process,” Mass-Tort MDL Certificate Program, Bolch Judicial Institute, Duke Law, November 15, 2021

- Presenter, “Settlement,” Mass-Tort MDL Certificate Program, Bolch Judicial Institute, Duke Law, November 17, 2021

- Presenter, “The Mechanics and Motivations of Settlements, Especially with Public Entities,” Symposium on Novel Liability Theories and the Incentives Driving Them, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School, October 26, 2021

- Presenter, “Best Practices in Resolution and the Search for Closure”, Contemporary Issues in Complex Litigation Conference, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, April 7, 2022

- Member, leadership council, Bolch Judicial Institute, Duke Law

- Adjunct professor, Trial Advocacy and Complex Litigation, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

- Presenter, “Global Settlements in Today’s Mass Tort Litigation,” Mass Tort Litigation Conference, Perrin Conferences, Thursday, June 24, 2021

- Presenter, “Class-Action Challenges,” Class Action Case Law and Practices Review Bench-Bar Conference, James F. Humphreys Complex Litigation Center, George Washington University School of Law, November 13, 2020

- Presenter, “Are MDL Judges Too Powerful?”, The Federalist Society, November 10, 2020

- Adjunct professor, “Initial Stages and the JPML” & “Settlement,” Mass-Tort MDL Certificate Program, Bolch Judicial Institute, Duke Law, November 9, 2020

- Presenter, “Opioid Litigation: What’s New, and What Does It Mean for Future Litigation?”, RAND Institute for Civil Justice, October 22, 2020

- Presenter, “MDLs & Class Actions: A Discussion with Chris Seeger and Elizabeth Burch,” Center on Civil Justice, NYU School of Law, October 20, 2020

- Presenter, “The Role of the Trial in Modern Complex Litigation,” Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, November 28, 2018

- Presenter, “The ABCs of Settling Mass Torts,” ABA Current Issues in Pharmaceutical, Medical Device, and Biotech Litigation Regional CLE Program, November 9, 2018

- Presenter, “Third Party Litigation Finance of Attorneys in Traditional and Complex Litigation,” George Washington University Law School, November 2, 2018

- Presenter, “NFL Players’ Concussion Injury Litigation,” 2018 Transferee Judges’ Conference, October 30, 2018

- Presenter, “The NFL Concussion Litigation: The Impact of Traumatic Brain Injury on America’s Most Popular Sport,” Fordham Law School, October 17, 2018

- Presenter, “Theory of Aggregation: Class Actions, MDLs, Bankruptcies, and More,” NYU School of Law, October 12, 2018

- Presenter, “FBA: Perspectives on Class Action and Multi District Litigation,” 2018 FBA Annual Meeting & Convention, September 13, 2018

- Presenter, “Impact of Critical Transferee Judge Decisions Not Subject to Review or Appeal,” Duke University School of Law, April 26, 2018

- Presenter, “How Does it End – Settlement, Trial, or Remand,” Federal Judicial Center, March 15, 2018

- Presenter, Bolch Judicial Institute, Duke University School of Law, March 13, 2018

- Presenter, “NFL Concussion Case Study,” Columbia Law School, March 2, 2018

- Presenter, “Current Issues in the Trial of Complex Matters,” Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, November 30, 2017

- Presenter, “Mass Tort Trends – 1,000 Claimants to 100 Million,” Mass Tort Global Settlement Architecture Conference, October 27, 2017

- Presenter, “Trying Cases and Settlement,” Federalist Society, October 19, 2017

- Presenter, Emory Law School Bridge Program, September 14, 2017

- Presenter, “The Aggregation of Claims: Pros and Cons,” RAND Institute for Civil Justice, May 19, 2017

- Presenter, “Limits on Judicial Participation in and Approval of Non-Class Settlements,” George Washington University Law School, April 27, 2017

- Presenter, “Case Management Techniques: What Helps, What Backfires, and How to Get to Efficient Resolution,” Emory Law Institute for Complex Litigation and Mass Claims, December 14, 2016

- Presenter, “There’s No Place like Home: The Pros and Cons of Lexecon Waivers and Bellwether Trials in the Modern MDL,” American Bar Association Continuing Legal Education Workshop, November 4, 2016

- Presenter, “Bellwether Trials? Purpose, Including Whether to Eliminate Them Altogether, Selection, and Early Dismissal,” Duke Law Center for Judicial Studies, October 28, 2016

- Presenter, “NFL: The challenges and rewards of serving as lead counsel in one of the most highly publicized class actions in history,” Oregon Law Institute of Lewis & Clark Law School, February 16, 2016

- Presenter, “Trials & Error: The NFL Concussion Settlement,” NYU School of Law, February 2, 2016

- Presenter, “Volkswagen Diesel Emissions Fraud: Arguments for Potential Transfer Venues,” American Association for Justice, December 2, 2015

- Presenter, “Common Benefit Funds,” Duke Law Center for Judicial Studies, November 9, 2015

- Presenter, “Common Benefit Fund/Attorney Fees,” Duke Law Center for Judicial Studies, May 2, 2013

- Managing Editor, Cardozo Law Review, 1990