Christopher J. Hurst

Partner

Chris is an accomplished product liability defense attorney and commercial litigator. He has assisted top foreign and domestic manufacturers and distributors in litigation throughout New England and elsewhere in the United States, including in New York, California, and Alaska.

Chris represents clients in the following industries, among others: automobile, powersports (motorcycles, ATVs, side-by-sides, personal watercraft, snowmobiles, golf cars), marine, helmets and safety equipment, bicycle, aviation, industrial machinery and equipment, consumer products and electronics, and medical devices and durable medical equipment.

He also brings a unique perspective and experience to the defense of premises liability and negligent security cases, having focused his undergraduate studies in loss prevention and security management.

Chris practiced for eight years with Cornell & Gollub in Boston before the firm combined with Smith Duggan Buell & Rufo LLP in 2023. Prior to that, he was a judicial law clerk for the Justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court. During law school, he interned for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination for two summers, handling probable cause investigations and assisting the staff attorneys with public hearings and appeals.

Accomplishments

Excluded opponent's engineering expert as unreliable and obtained summary judgment for the client in a motorcycle fire case involving catastrophic burn injuries to the rider. Successfully defended trial court's ruling before the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
Obtained voluntary no-pay dismissal of claims for manufacturer of durable medical equipment in a wrongful death case involving alleged bed rail entrapment and suffocation after developing defenses through discovery and expert disclosures.
Secured the dismissal of a proposed consumer class action against a nationwide distributor of automobiles and successfully defended the client at the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
In New Hampshire won the dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction against an automobile manufacturer. The case was re-filed in Massachusetts and dismissed again for lack of personal jurisdiction. Represented the manufacturer on appeal before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Obtained the dismissal of a consumer warranty complaint involving a personal watercraft for a nationwide powersports distributor.
Summary judgment was entered for the client on breach of express warranty, breach of the implied warranty of merchantability, and consumer protection (M.G.L. c. 93A) claims in a personal watercraft case.
Obtained a defense verdict for an automotive client in a fire case involving alleged personal injuries.
Secured summary judgment for an automotive distributer where the insured's release extinguished subrogation rights of insurer.
Obtained an order modifying the scope of an attorney general's civil investigative demand issued to a firearm manufacturer, protecting the disclosure of sensitive customer information.
Served as a member of the appellate team that reversed Wage Act judgment against biotech investors before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Education

JD, cum laude, Suffolk University Law School, 2011

- Editor, Transnational Law Review

BS, summa cum laude, Northeastern University, 2008

Admissions

Bar Admissions

Massachusetts 2011

Court Admissions

U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, 2014

U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, 2019

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 2023

Distinctions

Judicial Law Clerk to the Justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court

Affiliations

Defense Research Institute
Massachusetts Defense Lawyers Association
Massachusetts Bar Association
National Eagle Scout Association