Partner

Co-leader of Banking & Finance Litigation

Christopher J. Houpt

Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Overview

Chris Houpt serves clients with banking and finance matters, particularly cases involving cross-border issues, securitization, structured finance, and derivatives and asset turnover. Chris has represented securitization trustees and investors in and out of litigation and foreign banks in US litigation. Chris began in Mayer Brown's Supreme Court & Appellate practice, and has filed briefs in US Supreme Court, federal Courts of Appeals, and various state appellate courts.

Experience

RMBS trustees

  • Argued trial court motion and appeal In the Matter of The Bank of New York Mellon, which affirmed RMBS trustee's method of calculating pass-through rate on interest-only certificates on the basis of the trustee's course of conduct.
  • Argued the appeal in Fixed Income Shares v. Citibank (N.Y. App. Div.), which held that trustees have no duty to trigger Events of Default, rejecting the "prevention doctrine" theory that federal courts had employed to sustain similar claims.
  • Briefed the appeal in Commerce Bank v. BNY Mellon (N.Y. Appellate Division), which rejected efforts to impose extra-contractual duties on securitization trustees. Case was later abandoned by plaintiffs.
  • Argued motion to dismiss that produced the first post-Daimler dismissal of a case against a trustee for lack of personal jurisdiction. Commerce Bank v. BNY Mellon (Missouri Circuit Court).

Recognition

  • "Leading Lawyer" in Financial Services Litigation – Legal 500
  • "Rising Star" in banking – Law360
  • "Rising Star" in banking – New York Law Journal
 

Education

  • Harvard Law School, JD, cum laude
    Harvard Law Review
  • Dartmouth College, (Economics and Japanese double major / Applied Math minor), magna cum laude
    Phi Beta Kappa; Rufus Choate Scholar

Admissions

  • New York

Courts

  • US District Court for the Southern District of New York
  • US District Court for the Eastern District of New York
  • US District Court for the Western District of New York
  • US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
  • US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
  • US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

Professional & Community Involvement

  • Clerked for the Honorable Aharon Barak, President of the Supreme Court of Israel.
  • Editor on the Harvard Law Review during law school.
  • Teaching Fellow for the Harvard Economics Department during law school.
  • Previously worked in portfolio management at the D. E. Shaw Group.
  • Previously worked as a manager in the finance department of Covad Communications.
  • Passed the National Futures Association's Series 3 exam in 2000 and has completed the first two levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst® program.
  • Active in securitization industry groups and was the co-chair of SFIG's RMBS 3.0 Litigation and Arbitration Workstream.
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