Ryan Azad

Ryan Azad is a litigation associate in the San Francisco office of Gibson Dunn and a member of the Appellate and Constitutional Law group. His practice focuses on appellate matters in state and federal courts. 

Ryan has briefed cases in courts around the country and has argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the California Court of Appeal. He was recognized in the Los Angeles Daily Journal’s annual “Top Verdicts” feature for winning a top appellate reversal in 2024. Ryan was also honored with the 2024 Frank Wheat Memorial Award for his pro bono work briefing and arguing appeals on behalf of indigent clients who were denied their opportunity to fair proceedings in the trial court. In one of those cases, Ryan persuaded the Ninth Circuit to reverse an immigration judge’s denial of his client’s application for relief from removal and later persuaded the government to dismiss removal proceedings altogether, allowing his client to obtain lawful permanent resident status under the Cuban Adjustment Act.

Before joining the firm, Ryan clerked for Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar of the Supreme Court of California, Judge Milan D. Smith, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and Judge Samuel H. Mays, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. 

Representative matters include:

• City of Los Angeles v. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (California Supreme Court): Persuaded the California Supreme Court to grant review of, and unanimously reverse, a Court of Appeal decision limiting the authority of courts to impose monetary sanctions for discovery misconduct, and convinced the Court to hold that the Civil Discovery Act independently authorizes courts to impose monetary sanctions for discovery misconduct. 
• Gold Creek Condo.-Phase I Ass’n of Apartment Owners v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. (Ninth Circuit): Won unanimous affirmance of summary judgment for State Farm in a closely watched insurance case involving water intrusion damage to condominiums in the Pacific Northwest.
• Cordova v. Moronez (California Court of Appeal): Successfully represented a survivor of domestic violence in persuading the Court of Appeal to reverse a trial court’s denial of a domestic violence restraining order request.
• Davis v. Colorado (U.S. Supreme Court): Represented National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in support of certiorari petition regarding whether, once counsel has been appointed for an indigent defendant, the Sixth Amendment guarantees an indigent defendant the same right to continued representation by that counsel as is enjoyed by affluent defendants.
• Vedagarba v. Airbnb, Inc. (California Court of Appeal): Successfully represented Airbnb in obtaining dismissal of an appeal challenging the denial of plaintiff’s petition to vacate an arbitration award. 
• Woodhouse v. Meta Platforms et al. (Second Circuit): Successfully represented several parties, including Meta, in defending a district court’s dismissal of claims brought by a vexatious litigant and the issuance of a nationwide filing injunction restricting the vexatious litigant’s ability to file new cases raising similar claims in any federal court. 

Ryan received his J.D. from UCLA School of Law, where he served as a managing editor of the UCLA Law Review, was a member of the Supreme Court Clinic, and taught an undergraduate course as a Collegium of University Teaching Fellow. He earned his B.A., summa cum laude, in History from UCLA, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received the Carey McWilliams Award for his thesis on the freedom of speech in colonial America.

Ryan also serves as a mentor for The Appellate Project, an organization that seeks to empower law students of color to succeed as appellate attorneys and raise awareness about the importance of a diverse appellate system.

Capabilities

• Appellate and Constitutional Law
• Litigation

Credentials

Education:

• University of California, Los Angeles - 2017 Juris Doctor
• University of California, Los Angeles - 2014 Bachelor of Arts

Admissions:

• California Bar

Clerkships:

• California Supreme Court, Hon. Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, 2019 - 2020
• US Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit, Hon. Milan D. Smith, 2018 - 2019
• USDC, Western District of Tennessee, Hon. Samuel H. Mays, 2017 - 2018