Christopher D. Watkins graduated from Yale University and U.C. Berkeley Law School. Mr. Watkins has won several trials, including three of the highest employment verdicts ever obtained at the Southern District of New York federal court in White Plains. He has also favorably settled numerous cases before trial, including cases involving workplace discrimination, harassment, retaliation, failure to accommodate, as well as cases involving police misconduct. Mr. Watkins has been selected as a Super Lawyer for the past 10 years and was recently selected as one of the top employment lawyers in the country. In the area of civil rights, with Michael Sussman, he recently obtained a multi-million dollar settlement for a class of people with mental illness (Romano v. SLS) and, with Stephen Bergstein, prevailed at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in an important police misconduct case (Dancy v. McGinley).
Mr. Watkins is a member of the pro bono panel of Hudson Valley Legal Services, and the New York chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association (NY/NELA). He has trained other lawyers in giving closing arguments at trial, whistleblower and retaliation law, gender stereotypes in the workplace, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). He is admitted to practice in New York and its federal courts, and the Third and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal.