Litigation

Experience

Recent representations include:

• City of Grants Pass: Won a landmark ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the City of Grants Pass, Oregon’s public-camping laws in a case of widespread importance for local governments across the country grappling with the homelessness crisis.  Assembled a broad coalition of hundreds of amici, including California Governor Gavin Newsom and dozens of cities and states across the country, and presented oral argument before the Supreme Court on behalf of Grants Pass. The case was widely reported in the national media.
• Marriage Equality: Won marriage equality for all Californians by persuading the U.S. Supreme Court to hold in Hollingsworth v. Perry that the ballot-initiative proponents of Proposition 8—which had deprived same-sex couples in California of the right to marry—lacked standing to appeal the decision of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California that invalidated Proposition 8 on due process and equal protection grounds. The Supreme Court’s decision left the district court’s ruling intact and, within days of that decision, gay and lesbian couples were once again getting married throughout California—the culmination of Gibson Dunn’s four-year effort to invalidate that discriminatory measure, which encompassed a full trial on the merits in the Northern District of California and the successful defense of the trial-court victory in the Ninth Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court.
• Wal-Mart: Secured a landmark class certification victory before the U.S. Supreme Court in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, reversing the largest Title VII class in history with over 1.5 million class members. On appeal from a district court order certifying a nationwide class action of female associates, Gibson Dunn obtained an order decertifying the class and ushering in new standards for Rule 23 class actions. The Wall Street Journal hailed the decision as a “major victory for legal fairness and economic growth” and explained that its impact “will be felt not only in employment law cases but in the other vast class action playgrounds of the plaintiffs’ bar, from product liability to securities law.”
• Citizens United: Won a landmark campaign finance ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, convincing the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate major portions of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law banning corporate contributions because corporations have a First Amendment right to engage in political speech. The New York Times called the decision “a doctrinal earthquake” that was both “political and practical.”
• Ryan, LLC: Secured a summary judgment victory for our client, Ryan, LLC in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, that invalidated the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Non-Compete Rule—the Rule would have retroactively invalidated over 30 million employment contracts and preempted the laws of 46 states.
• VMware, Dell: Obtained an unprecedented directed verdict of no infringement for VMware and Dell in a $435 million dollar patent infringement suit in the Western District of Texas. At the conclusion of the plaintiff’s case in chief, defendants moved for a directed verdict of no infringement, which Judge Albright granted, the first time Judge Albright has done so in a patent case since taking the bench.
• Apple: Secured a historic win for Apple, defeating antitrust attacks from Epic Games relating to Apple’s App Store and business model. Following a three-week bench trial described in the press as “the Super Bowl of Antitrust,” the court ruled in Apple’s favor on all antitrust claims. Affirmed on appeal in April 2023 by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Uber, Postmates, DoorDash, Grubhub: Gibson Dunn has successfully defended the gig economy in litigation for Uber, Postmates, DoorDash, and Grubhub, among others. We were the first to prove at trial that a gig economy contractor was an independent contractor. We have won numerous appellate decisions across the country enforcing gig worker arbitration agreements, including the first appellate decision to hold that the Section 1 exemption of the FAA does not apply to rideshare drivers.
• Chevron Corporation: Defending Chevron Corporation in the high-profile wave of climate litigation being brought against oil and gas companies in jurisdictions around the United States. To date, more than 25 cases have been brought against Chevron by States, counties, municipalities and Indian tribes, among others, seeking to impose damages on oil and gas companies for the alleged consequences of interstate and international emissions that have contributed to climate change based on allegations that these companies downplayed or failed to warn about the risks of climate change. Gibson Dunn leads the overall defense of the cases for Chevron and on behalf of the joint defense group, including BP, ConocoPhillips, Exxon, and Shell. In the first case to be decided on the merits, The City of New York v. BP P.L.C., Gibson Dunn was successful in dismissing the City of New York’s claims against the industry. Following oral argument, the Second Circuit unanimously affirmed the district court’s decision that the City’s claims are barred, holding that municipalities cannot “utilize state tort law to hold multinational oil companies liable for the damages caused by global greenhouse gas emissions.” The court held that “[s]uch a sprawling case is simply beyond the limits of state law and noted that “every single person who uses gas and electricity contributes to global warming.” The City of New York did not seek further review of that decision. The remaining cases are at various stages of the litigation and appellate process.
• AT&T: Successfully represented AT&T as antitrust trial counsel, in the defeat of the high-profile lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division to block AT&T’s proposed $106 billion acquisition of Time Warner, Inc. Following a six-week trial, dubbed the “antitrust trial of the century” by The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that AT&T could proceed with the acquisition without conditions, crediting arguments developed and advanced by Gibson Dunn and co-counsel to reject the government’s economic theories of harm. The court went further and concluded that the merger would be pro-competitive. The decisive win marked a historic defeat for the DOJ, which had not lost a merger challenge in decades.