Ms. Christine Lupo Mast

Hawkins Parnell & Young LLP

Christine Mast is a senior partner at Hawkins Parnell & Young in Atlanta. She is a go-to attorney for legal professionals faced with malpractice claims, lawsuits, disciplinary, licensing, and ethics issues. 30 years’ experience defending lawyer claims gives Christine a unique Jack-of-all-trades knowledge base coupled with deep understanding of legal standards of care and ethical requirements, enabling her to swiftly assess each situation, drawing on her expertise in her clients’ specific practice area, to develop an effective and appropriate defense and resolution strategy. Her wide range of subject matter experience also specially positions Christine to provide skillful defense to insurance agents and brokers, appraisers, surveyors and real estate professionals. Christine creatively counsels and advises clients in diffusing, avoiding or mitigating claims, often persuading the opposition of the lack of a viable claim altogether. When litigation is inevitable, Christine is called upon for her strong advocacy on behalf of her clients, guiding them through trial while minimizing the impact on her clients’ reputations and livelihoods. Her candor and straightforward manner is a proven asset to Christine’s attorney clients in both trial and appellate advocacy and dispute resolution with party opponents.

Christine also devotes significant time to representation of clients in premises and products liability cases, commercial litigation disputes, and insurance coverage.  A testament to her skillful, pragmatic handling of serious and sensitive claims, Christine’s former litigation opponents seek out her advice, counsel, and when necessary, her defense when they find themselves on the wrong end of a claim. A natural complement to her defense of legal and other professionals, Christine defends litigants and their counsel against sanctions and protects professionals in licensing and disciplinary matters.

Her successful representation is evident in a long list of appellate decisions affirming favorable rulings for her clients. Most notably, Christine argued and won a landmark case before the Georgia Supreme Court in Leibel v. Johnson, resulting in a unanimous decision limiting expert testimony in legal malpractice cases and reversing a multi-million-dollar judgment against her lawyer-client.

Christine was included as one of Georgia’s top 100 lawyers in 2019, 2020 and 2021 by Super Lawyers and was selected by Best Lawyers as Lawyer of the Year for Legal Malpractice Defendants in 2015 and 2022 and for Professional Malpractice Law Defendants in 2021. 

Christine also dedicates herself to service within Hawkins Parnell and she has the distinction of being the first woman elected to the compensation committee, the executive committee, and in 2020 to the role as Hawkins Parnell’s managing partner.