// Assuming you already have SPWeb and SPList objects
...
SPRoleAssignment roleAssignment = new SPRoleAssignment("dom\\user","user@dom","user","some notes");
SPRoleDefinition roleDefinition = web.RoleDefinitions.GetByType(SPRoleType.Contributor);
roleAssignment.RoleDefinitionBindings.Add(roleDefinition);
if (!myList.HasUniqueRoleAssignments)
{
    myList.BreakRoleInheritance(true); // Ensure we don't inherit permissions from parent
} 
myList.RoleAssignments.Add(roleAssignment);
myList.Update();