Thomas H. Dupree, Jr. is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. He is a member of the firm's litigation department and its Appellate and Constitutional Law practice group, and is the hiring partner for the DC office.
Mr. Dupree is an experienced trial and appellate advocate. He has argued more than 60 appeals in the federal courts, including in all thirteen circuits and before five en banc courts, and has represented clients throughout the country in a wide variety of trial and appellate matters, including cases involving punitive damages, class actions, product liability, arbitration, intellectual property, employment, and constitutional challenges to federal and state statutes.
In 2007, Mr. Dupree was appointed Deputy Assistant Attorney General. He served in the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2007 to 2009, ultimately becoming the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General. In that capacity, he served as the division's second-in-command, overseeing the more than 900 lawyers in the Civil Appellate, Commercial, Federal Programs and Torts branches, as well as the Office of Immigration Litigation and the Office of Consumer Litigation. Mr. Dupree was responsible for managing many of the government's most significant cases involving regulatory, commercial, constitutional and national security matters on behalf of virtually all of the federal agencies, the White House, and senior federal officials. Before being named the division’s top deputy, Mr. Dupree ran its largest litigating branch, managing a staff of 280 lawyers.
In 2009, the National Law Journal and Legal Times selected Mr. Dupree as one of the top 40 lawyers under the age of 40 in Washington, DC. He received the same honor in 2006, when Washingtonian magazine named him to its Top 40 Under 40 list. He has also been chosen as a national rising star by Lawdragon magazine, and Legal Times has called him "no stranger to high-profile work." Among other things, Mr. Dupree played a substantial role in the successful representation of George W. Bush before the United States Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore, and represented Time Inc. and Time's White House reporter Matthew Cooper in connection with the investigation into the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
Other matters Mr. Dupree has handled include:
Persuading the Supreme Court to grant a petition for certiorari on behalf of a major automobile manufacturer and to vacate a $290 million punitive damage award, which had been the largest personal injury award ever affirmed on appeal in United States history.
Successfully representing the government before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in a constitutional challenge to post-9/11 national security registration programs operated by the Department of Homeland Security.
Persuading the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to reverse a $262 million jury verdict against a major automobile manufacturer in a product liability case.
Mr. Dupree graduated cum laude from Williams College, and with Honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where he served as an Editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable Jerry E. Smith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Mr. Dupree appears frequently on national television as a legal analyst. He has appeared on CNN's "Situation Room," C-Span's "America & The Courts," and is a regular guest on Fox News Channel. He has also been quoted in numerous print publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times and many others, discussing legal issues and developments.