Hon. Christopher J. Muse (Ret.)

Hon. Christopher J. Muse (Ret.) has spent more than five decades on nearly every side of a dispute, and he has been mediating and arbitrating full time since leaving the Massachusetts Superior Court in 2018. His practice centers on contract disputes, personal injury claims, and employment matters. Lawyers on both sides bring him their cases for the same reason: he has stood where they stand, and he knows how a judge and jury will see their case.

His career began in a Boston Public Schools classroom, where he taught for seven years and earned a Master’s in Education. That foundation never left him. He went on to teach at the college level, has taught trial practice at Boston College Law School for more than twenty years, and served six years as legal advisor to the former State Advisory Commission for Special Education. Today, schools, families, colleges, and students in special education, disability, and higher education disputes find a neutral who understands the classroom, the administration, and the law behind them.

As a public defender and then founding partner of Muse and Muse in Boston, he tried civil and criminal cases before juries and appellate courts for more than two decades while also serving as lead negotiator for major public employee unions, including the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society and SEIU. He closed dozens of collective bargaining agreements and learned at those tables that agreement outlasts authority. Having defended the accused, represented police officers, and negotiated against public employers, he brings unusual balance to police misconduct, civil rights, and labor and employment matters. Claimants, officers, municipalities, unions, and employers all recognize that he understands their pressures.

On the Superior Court from 2001 to 2018, he presided over a broad civil docket that included contract and commercial disputes, construction site injuries and owner, contractor, and subcontractor conflicts, employment claims, agency appeals, and every kind of personal injury case. He knows how these cases are built, how they are valued, and where they tend to break down.

Judge Muse prepares by reading the full file before every session. He isn’t looking to arrive with a view of where the case should land. He wants to understand both positions well enough that the people in the room trust him to be genuinely useful. He is warm, patient, and direct, steady when conversations get hard, and he stays with a case until it resolves. Parties come away feeling heard, and his settlements hold.