Christopher D. Dusseault

Christopher D. Dusseault is Co-Partner in Charge of the Los Angeles office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  He is a member of the firm's Litigation Department and its Antitrust and Trade Regulation and Media and Entertainment Practice Groups.  Mr. Dusseault's practice focuses on antitrust and competition law litigation and counseling, as well as general complex commercial litigation.  Mr. Dusseault also recently served as trial counsel in Perry v. Schwarzenegger , a federal constitutional challenge to the California ballot initiative that stripped gay and lesbian individuals of the right to marry.

Mr. Dusseault has significant experience in a wide range of antitrust litigation matters.  He has represented clients in the entertainment, aviation, automotive, medical device and pharmaceutical industries in cases involving charges of monopolization, conspiracy and price discrimination.  Mr. Dusseault has served as lead counsel and on trial teams before numerous federal and state courts, and he has argued appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the California Court of Appeal.  Mr. Dusseault also has provided antitrust counseling and compliance training to some of the world's largest companies and has spoken and written on various antitrust subjects.

In addition to his antitrust work, Mr. Dusseault also has extensive experience in trial-oriented, complex commercial and constitutional litigation.  Mr. Dusseault has litigated matters involving breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, trade secret misappropriation, patent ownership, fraud and civil rights. 

In January 2010, Mr. Dusseault was named one of California’s “Top 20 Under 40” by the legal publication Daily Journal .  The Daily Journal cited Mr. Dusseault’s work on the Perry litigation, his successful defense of a major antitrust lawsuit for Tyco Healthcare Group, and his leadership of Gibson Dunn’s Los Angeles offices.  In April 2009, Mr. Dusseault was honored by Duke Law School with its “Young Alumni Award,” given to a graduate from the last 15 years for distinguished service to the legal profession and to the school. 

Mr. Dusseault's representative matters include the following:

• Representation of Tyco Healthcare Group in Allied Orthopedic Appliances v. Tyco Healthcare Group , a consolidated antitrust class action in which direct purchasers of pulse oximetry products challenged business practices including loyalty discounts, sole-source contracting and product design changes under Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.  Mr. Dusseault served as lead trial counsel in this matter, leading a team that first defeated plaintiffs' motion for class certification and then won summary judgment on all claims.  This victory was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for this Ninth Circuit.
• Representation of CFM International, Inc. (a joint venture of GE Aircraft Engines and Snecma) in Aviation Upgrade Technologies, Inc. v. Boeing et al. , 78 Fed. Appx. 223 (9th Cir. 2003), in which plaintiff brought claims under Section 1 of the Sherman Act challenging defendants' decision not to sell aircraft engines to plaintiff for use in the re-engining of 727 aircraft.  Mr. Dusseault was the primary author of CFM's successful summary judgment motion, and he argued the appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  The Ninth Circuit affirmed the grant of summary judgment.
• Representation of Plaintiffs in Perry v. Schwarzenegger , the historic lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, which stripped gay and lesbian individuals of their previously recognized right to marry.  Mr. Dusseault acted as the “field marshal” for a team that includes dozens of lawyers, supervising and coordinating fact discovery, expert reports, and pre-trial preparation.  Mr. Dusseault was a key member of the Perry trial team, putting on testimony from two of Plaintiffs’ key expert witnesses and handling an evidentiary presentation that led to the admission of significant campaign videos and documents
• Representation of the Co-CEOs of a limited liability company engaged in algorithmic trading in an arbitration involving claims of breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty.  Mr. Dusseault first-chaired the five-day trial.  The Arbitrator ruled in favor of Gibson, Dunn's clients on all claims and denied all requested relief.  Mr. Dusseault subsequently won an award of nearly $3 million in attorneys’ fees and costs for his clients. 
• Representation of defendants in World Wide Medical Technologies, et al. v. North American Scientific and World Wide Medical Technologies, et al. v. IdeaMatrix and Richard A. Terwilliger , consolidated actions in which plaintiffs brought claims of patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation and sought declaratory relief as to patent ownership.  Mr. Dusseault was lead counsel in these actions and first-chaired a multi-day preliminary injunction hearing after which the district court ruled in defendants' favor.
• Representation of Sony Corporation in Wuxi Multimedia, Ltd., et al. v. Koninklijke Philips Electronics, N.V., et al ., in which plaintiffs challenged under the federal antitrust laws the patent licensing program through which the defendants made their DVD technology available to manufacturers around the world.  Sony and the other defendants won dismissal of all of all claims and subsequently won affirmance before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
• Representation of Warner Music Group in Radikal Records v. Warner Music Group and TSR Records v. Warner Music Group , in which plaintiffs, both independent record labels, sued Warner Music under the federal antitrust laws and California tort law based on alleged "payola" practices with respect to radio airplay.  Warner Music successfully moved to dismiss plaintiffs' state law claims for intentional interference with prospective economic advantage.
• Representation of Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Corporation of America in Intertainer, inc. v. Time Warner Inc., et al ., in which plaintiff Intertainer, a provider of video-on-demand services, accused the major motion picture studios of utilizing their movie downloading joint venture, Movielink, to illegally fix the prices that video-on-demand services would pay for their content.  The case settled shortly before trial.
• Representation of Columbia Tri-Star Home Entertainment, Inc. in Eddins v. Sumner Redstone, et al., in which independent video retailers sued the home video divisions of the major motion picture studios challenging the revenue-sharing model by which videotapes are distributed to the major video chains such as Blockbuster and Hollywood Video.  Columbia and the other defendants obtained partial summary judgment, winning dismissal of plaintiffs' claims that the defendants conspired to deny to plaintiffs the revenue sharing terms made available to Blockbuster. 
• Representation of American Airlines in United States v. AMR Corp., 140 F. Supp. 2d 1141 (D. Kan. 2001), aff'd, 335 F.3d 1109 (10th Cir. 2003), in which American obtained summary judgment in an alleged monopolization and predatory pricing case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice.

In addition to his role as Co-Partner in Charge of the firm's Los Angeles office, Mr. Dusseault also serves on the firm's Hiring Committee, where he chairs the Summer Subcommittee that oversees the firm's summer associate program nationwide.  Mr. Dusseault is also actively involved in the community, serving on the Governing Board of LA's BEST, a nationally recognized after school program.

Mr. Dusseault received his B.A. degree summa cum laude from Yale University in 1991.  He received his J.D. degree with high honors from Duke University School of Law in 1994, where he was Special Projects and Notes Editor of Law and Contemporary Problems and Vice-Chairman of the Moot Court Board.  Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Dusseault served as law clerk to The Honorable Robert E. Payne in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.