Kristen Hudson

Practice Areas

Kristen Hudson represents businesses and business people in complex commercial litigation and class action defense in state and federal courts in Texas, Illinois, and across the country. Kristen has won high-stakes challenges in a variety of substantive areas, from breach of contract, employment disputes, business and statutory torts, including fraud, RICO, and the False Claims Act claims, to intellectual property disputes, including the protection of trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, patents, and privacy. Kristen has served as an expert witness in litigation in Canada involving product liability and the U.N. Convention on the International Sale of Goods. Kristen also has concentrated experience in lawyer professional liability and fiduciary liability, including high-net worth trust disputes and officer and director liability.

Kristen is a battle-tested trial lawyer. In 2022, Kristen was involved in the first jury trial in Illinois federal court under the Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. That same year, Kristen won a defense verdict in a four-week jury trial in Illinois involving significant eight-figure liability for alleged benzene exposure in the printing industry. In 2021, Kristen successfully defeated three separate attempts at a temporary restraining order in state court in Dallas County on behalf of her clients, insurance industry professionals, who were engaged in lawful competition under the terms of their employment agreements.

In addition to her litigation experience, Kristen is a trusted advisor and counselor. Kristen has served as General Counsel for a mid-size law firm with offices in multiple states. In her capacity as General Counsel, Kristen provided advice to mitigate risk in substantive areas ranging from corporate governance, privacy, employment advice, insurance, and lawyer professional liability. Kristen has been seconded to clients for extended periods, including at a large energy company and with a UK-based insurance company. With this experience to guide her, Kristen works to avoid court wherever possible and pursues solutions that make the most business and financial sense for her clients, including advocating aggressively when litigation is required. Kristen is well-versed in all forms of alternative dispute resolution and is a commercial and consumer arbitrator listed on the American Arbitration Association’s National Roster of Arbitrators and a member of the ADR Section Council for the Illinois Bar Association. As part of her work with privacy law, Kristen is the newsletter editor for the American Bar Association’s Privacy and Data Security Committee.

Professional Memberships

American Bar Association, Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section (TIPS), Ethics and Professionalism Standing Committee, 2022-2023, Outreach to Young Lawyers Standing Committee, 2022-2023, Vice-Chair, Business Litigation General Committee, 2022-2023; American Bar Association, Litigation Section, Privacy and Data Security Committee, Newsletter Editor; Illinois Bar Association, Cook County Assembly, Alternative Dispute Resolution Section Council; UIC Law School, Adjunct Professor, International Means of Dispute Resolution, Alternative Means of Dispute Resolution, and Counseling and Negotiations, Co-Coach, Willem C. Vis International Moot Arbitration Team, Advanced to Elimination Rounds, Vis East Hong Kong, China, 2022; Honorable Mention Best Oralist, 2022, Advanced to Elimination Rounds, Vis East Hong Kong, China, 2021, Honorable Mention Best Oralist, Vienna, Austria, 2020, Honorable Mention Best Claimant’s Brief, Vis East Hong Kong, China, 2019, Honorable Mention Best Respondent’s Brief, Vis East Hong Kong, China, 2019, Third Place, the University of Houston Blakely Advocacy Institute’s “Write the Arbitration Award” Competition, 2019; Illinois Supreme Court’s Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, Hearing Board, Member; Travis County Women Lawyers’ Association, Member

Publications

Co-Author, "Year in Review: Some Latest Supreme Court Decisions Involving Arbitration,” In the Alternative, Section on Alternative Dispute Resolution, Illinois State Bar, March 2023

Education

Awards