Overview

Christian Hudson is a counsel in the Washington, DC office of Mayer Brown focusing on reputation risk and media crisis management.

Christian's reputation risk and media crisis management practice uniquely couples a traditional law practice with media strategy. Christian spent approximately half of his career producing at a national news network before leaving journalism to practice law as a capital markets attorney. Today, he combines his corporate and finance law skill sets with his over a decade long experience as an Emmy award-winning senior news producer to counsel clients at the intersection of law, finance, media and politics.

Christian helps clients understand the legal challenges generated by media attention. He works with them to provide legal due diligence for transaction, litigation, investigation and government affairs matters, as well as designs and implements plans to engage the media and third-party stakeholders as part of a legal strategy.

Christian has represented borrowers, lenders, and investors in joint ventures, financings, acquisitions and dispositions, has negotiated, reorganized and recapitalized commercial, hospitality and healthcare portfolios and then counseled such clients as to how to better understand transaction liabilities in an evolving media landscape.

Christian’s pro-bono practice centers around primarily counseling journalists currently in and contemplating entering conflict zones. He served as pro bono counsel to the family of an American reporter detained in Libya to successfully facilitate the release of the reporter and several other detained individuals. The public relations component of this representation was subsequently recognized with a Silver Anvil Award of Excellence for crisis communications. In addition to journalists, Christian has also assisted students fleeing conflict zones and helped with college admissions and scholarships for the students.

During his years as a CNN television news producer, he successfully launched numerous shows including Wolf Blitzer Reports and The Situation Room, which became the template for the network's breaking news, election night coverage, and many shows on CNN today. He produced stories internationally while traveling in the Middle East covering terrorism, the Israel/Lebanon war and the invasion of Iraq. He managed and oversaw editorial content for all reporters/producers filing for The Situation Room and Wolf Blitzer Reports including supervising all international, war zone, and conflict zone reports. During his producing tenure at CNN, he covered every Congressional, Gubernatorial and Presidential election from 1994 until leaving to practice law in 2007. He received an Emmy-award for CNN's groundbreaking 2006 election-night coverage. In addition, he was an integral part of CNN's Peabody Award for coverage of Hurricane Katrina and CNN's DuPont Award for coverage of the Tsunami Disaster in South Asia. When he left CNN, The Situation Room was ranked number one among its competitors.

Areas of Focus

Practices

Experience

Reputation Risk & Media Crisis Management for Litigation, Investigations and Government Affairs

  • Represents individuals and businesses in highly sensitive matters involving the intersection of law, finance, media and politics.
  • Represented a manufacturer subject to a Congressional investigation and media scrutiny.
  • Represented a renewable energy manufacturer in a trade dispute which was subject to Congressional and media attention.
  • Represented a medical company facing legal and media questions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Represented a manufacturer facing legal and media questions regarding an environmental issue which leveraged media coverage for legal purposes.
  • Represented a number of manufacturers in trade disputes involving legal questions litigated in press coverage.
  • Represented a publicly traded company in regard to a Department of Justice settlement.
  • Represented a chief financial officer in a matter with his publicly traded company.
  • Successfully represented and managed a jeopardized Senate confirmation.
  • Advised clients on legal and media issues surrounding security breaches, including a large financial entity.
  • Advised businesses on the impact of financial regulation and reform proposals on their bottom line.
  • Represented a consortium of companies on the development, drafting and ultimate implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
  • Helped found a previous firm's Financial Industry Recovery Group to track the financial recovery and the impact on businesses.
  • Assisted in facilitating the safe and successful extraction of approximately 150 college students from a conflict zone to the U.S. to attend college.
  • Successfully secured offers of college admission for approximately 150 college students from a worn torn country.
  • Successfully secured full ride scholarships for college students at an U.S. university after departing a conflict zone.
  • Served as pro bono counsel to the family of an American reporter detained in Libya to successfully facilitate the release of the report and several other detained individuals.
  • Served as pro bono counsel to journalists facing threats and/or contemplating entering into a conflict zone.

Reputation Risk & Media Crisis Management for Transactions

  • Represented clients in real estate capital markets, investment trusts, joint ventures, financings, development, acquisitions, dispositions, restructurings and workouts, in addition to traditional business transactions.
  • Represented clients in commercial, hospitality, residential and health care real estate portfolio transactions.
  • Reorganized billion dollar commercial Class A property portfolio.
  • Negotiated joint venture to recapitalize a billion dollar commercial Class A property portfolio.
  • Represented numerous companies in the hospitality industry involving hotel acquisitions, dispositions and financings, management and franchise agreements, and public offerings.
  • Advise real estate investment trusts as well as other public and private companies with regard to their acquisitions, dispositions, financings and development projects.
  • Negotiated joint venture to acquire billion dollar hotel property portfolio.

Education

University of California, Los Angeles, BA, Political Science and History

Georgetown University Law Center, JD

Admissions

  • District of Columbia

Court

  • US Supreme Court

Activities

  • Member, American Bar Association
  • PRSA Silver Anvil Award of Excellence 2012, Crisis Communications, The Campaign to Free James Foley.
  • Emmy Award - Outstanding Live Coverage of a Breaking News Story - Long Form “America Votes 2006.”
  • Peabody Award - CNN’s 2005 coverage of Hurricane Katrina.
  • Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award - CNN’s 2004/2005 coverage of the Tsunami Disaster in South Asia.