Christopher Allan Dunn

Christopher Allan Dunn, a distinguished international trade attorney whose career spanned decades and continents, died suddenly at his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on July 24, 2025, of complications from heart disease. He was 74.

Mr. Dunn and his wife had recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, marking a half-century of partnership that began when they met as first-year students at Georgetown University Law Center. The couple married shortly before graduating together in 1975. He began his legal career as a law clerk at the U.S. Court of Claims, ultimately serving as clerk to Chief Judge Wilson Cowan.

In private practice for over 45 years, Mr. Dunn represented clients in complex trade matters across the globe. Clients and colleagues remember him for his incisive intellect, measured counsel, and steadfast commitment to the highest professional standards.

Born abroad, Mr. Dunn was a graduate of the Rome International School and Brown University, where he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity and elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Long after receiving his J.D. from Georgetown University, he maintained an insatiable curiosity and love of learning. Throughout the course of his life, he enrolled in courses and seminars on subjects ranging from history and politics to art and science, and even went on to earn a Masters from Georgetown University in Classical Studies.

An accomplished athlete, Mr. Dunn completed a grueling 24-hour team relay at Fort Meade, Maryland; participated in marathons and triathlons across the United States and abroad; and undertook a week-long bicycle ride across Iowa (RAGBRAI). A devoted baseball fan, he reveled in the rhythms of the game, from spring training to the World Series, and joyfully shared that passion with his sons and grandchildren.

He is survived by his wife of five decades, Christine Vaughn; two sons, Conor Alexander Dunn of El Cerrito, California, and Reed Christopher Dunn of Cary, North Carolina; their wives; four grandchildren; and his sister, Catherine Dunn Doherty. He was preceded in death by his parents, Alexander L. Dunn and Honor Maingot Dunn, as well as his siblings, Lieutenant Commander Michael Edward Dunn and Sharon Dunn Kingery Motin.

Mr. Dunn will be remembered as a man with unwavering integrity, a devoted husband and father, and a man who approached his work and his life with rare kindness, quiet strength, and extraordinary dignity.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, August 20, at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Washington, D.C. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made in Mr. Dunn’s memory to Catholic Relief Services, Rock Creek Conservancy, or So Others Might Eat - organizations he dutifully supported throughout his life.