Charles (Chip) Harrison

Chip is a business litigator with a wide-ranging practice focusing primarily on state attorneys general investigations, white-collar defense and aviation litigation. Chip has handled bet-the-company cases for clients in state and federal courts throughout the US. He also leads Cooley’s website accessibility practice, advising clients on compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and helping them navigate associated litigation, wherever it arises. 

Chip’s representative matters include:

White collar defense and investigations

• Defending the CEO of a national real estate brokerage in parallel criminal and civil investigations related to one of the largest real estate disputes in San Diego history
• Representing a technology communications company against claims by the Federal Trade Commission that the company misrepresented the security features of its products, resulting in a consent order for the investigation and the company paying no monetary fine or penalty
• Representing an executive in a license revocation proceeding before the California Department of Real Estate and in state court writ proceedings, resulting in a consent judgment allowing the executive to retain his license
• Representing a social media company in parallel federal and state attorneys general investigations related to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
• Representing a technology company in an attorney general investigation related to online gambling

Aviation litigation

• Representing an aftermarket aircraft manufacturer in litigation related to its portfolio of supplemental type certificates
• Representing a defense contractor in litigation related to the crash of a tiltrotor aircraft
• Representing a light-aircraft manufacturer in multijurisdiction litigation related to alleged product defects
• Representing a municipality in parallel state, federal and administrative proceedings regarding a first-of-its-kind conversion of an unregulated public-use airport into a regulated private-use airport

Website accessibility

• Representing more than two dozen companies in federal and state actions related to website accessibility under the ADA and similar state statutes
• Advising clients on compliance with the WCAG and ADA with respect to website design

General litigation matters

• Representing two major utility companies against claims from individuals and public entities related to California wildfires
• Representing a major technology company in a series of lawsuits against former employees accused of exfiltrating confidential information, resulting in the company securing early injunctions against the defendants
• Representing a drone manufacturer against claims by a nonpracticing entity related to its acoustic navigation technology

Before joining Cooley, Chip served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Larry Alan Burns of the US District Court for the Southern District of California and as a judicial intern for the counselor to Chief Justice John G. Roberts of the US Supreme Court. 

Chip previously practiced at a global litigation firm in Los Angeles, where he focused on mass tort and intellectual property litigation.