Transnational Litigation

Experience

Recent representations include:

• Nestlé USA, Inc: Helped secure an important victory before the U.S. Supreme Court for Nestlé USA, Inc. in a case addressing extraterritorial application of the Alien Tort Statute. (Nestlé USA, Inc. v. Doe, 141 S.Ct. 1931 (2021))
• Dell Technologies: Successfully represented Dell Technologies in a putative class action alleging that Dell (and other defendants should be responsible under the TVPRA for alleged wrongs perpetrated by third parties. (Doe et al. v. Apple Inc. et al., No. 19-cv-03737 (D.D.C.))
• Oath Holdings: Won dismissal with prejudice for Oath Holdings of Alien Tort Statute, Torture Victim Protection Act, and California Unfair Competition Law claims arising out of alleged activity in the People’s Republic of China. (Ning Xianhua v. Oath Holdings, Inc. et al., No. 20-cv-06185 (N.D. Cal.))
• Eli Lilly: Representation of Eli Lilly in Brazilian litigation brought against its subsidiary, Eli Lilly do Brasil Ltda., arising from allegations that former workers were exposed to environmental contamination at an industrial facility. Since Gibson Dunn’s involvement, hundreds of claims brought against Lilly Brazil have been dismissed, and no new judgments have been issued against Lilly Brazil at the trial-court level.
• Dole Food Company: Successful representation of Dole Food Company in environmental litigation brought by tens of thousands of plaintiffs nationally and internationally. Alleging exposure to DBCP, Plaintiffs from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ecuador, Honduras, Panama and the Ivory Coast brought claims both across the United States and in the plaintiffs’ countries of origin. Tens of thousands of claims have been successfully defeated and no claims have survived to judgment since Gibson Dunn became lead Dole counsel.
• Chevron: Secured dismissal of an arbitral enforcement action against Chevron of a sham $18 billion arbitration award procured in Egypt. (Al-Qarqani v. Chevron Corp., No. C 18-03297 JSW (N.D. Cal.)). The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal finding that “there was no binding agreement to arbitrate between the parties.” (Al-Qarqani v. Chevron Corp., 8 F.4th 1018, 1025 (9th Cir. 2021))
• General Electric: Achieved a complete dismissal on forum non conveniens grounds of a $1.1 billion lawsuit brought against General Electric by Angolan corporations that formerly distributed GE power equipment in Angola. Plaintiffs alleged that three GE affiliates interfered with the plaintiffs’ relationship with the Angolan government, causing the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in business. In a comprehensive, 43-page opinion, the judge adopted the vast majority of our forum non conveniens arguments. (Aenergy, S.A., et al. v. Republic of Angola, et al., No. 20-cv-03569 (S.D.N.Y.)). The Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal. (Aenergy, S.A. v. Republic of Angola, 31 F.4th 119 (2d Cir. 2022))
• Daimler AG: Obtained a victory for Daimler AG before the U.S. Supreme Court in a transnational case, in which the Court held that it violates due process for a U.S. court to exercise general personal jurisdiction over a non-U.S. corporation based on the fact that an indirect corporate subsidiary performs services on behalf of the defendant in the forum state. In a separate case on behalf of Daimler AG, resolved a complex web of multi-billion dollar class actions and investigations in various North American and European fora related to alleged non-compliance with Diesel emissions regulations.
• Crystallex: Secured an order, on behalf of Crystallex, attaching the shares of PDV Holding, Inc. (PDVH), nominally held by PDVSA, Venezuela’s national oil company, which Crystallex successfully argued is the alter ego of Venezuela. The attachment was in aid of a $1.4 billion award that Crystallex won against Venezuela. PDVH owns multibillion-dollar U.S. refiner CITGO Petroleum. The District Court has since authorized, subject to potential OFAC approval, the sale of shares of CITGO in satisfaction of Crystallex’s judgment.
• NML Capital: Resolved groundbreaking, multibillion-dollar litigation by NML Capital against the Republic of Argentina when Argentina paid NML more than $2.4 billion to satisfy NML’s claims on the country’s defaulted bonds. This settlement marked the conclusion of what the Financial Times called the “sovereign debt trial of the century” and ended 13 years of litigation following Argentina’s default in 2001 on more than $80 billion in external debt.
• Chevron Corporation: Successfully defended Chevron Corporation in a $1.797 billion Indonesian lawsuit over alleged environmental violations, securing a complete trial victory and having the dismissal of the claims affirmed on appeal.
• Deloitte China: Successfully defended Deloitte China in a major SEC investigation by navigating complex issues related to U.S. securities laws, the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, and conflicting Chinese regulations, effectively managing competing demands from U.S. and Chinese regulators.
• RedBird Capital: Successfully defended RedBird Capital against an application for discovery under 28 U.S.C. § 1782 filed by Blue Skye Financial Partners, a former minority shareholder of AC Milan, by convincing the district court that the requested discovery was irrelevant to the ongoing litigation in Luxembourg, resulting in the denial of the discovery petitions.
• Former Mongolian Prime Minister: Achieved a major victory for former Mongolian Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold by convincing the High Court in Hong Kong to lift an asset-freezing injunction and dismiss the proceedings against him, followed by similar successes in Singapore, London, Jersey, and the British Virgin Islands, effectively dismantling a global litigation campaign driven by political opponents to tarnish his reputation.
• Chevron: Lead counsel in Chevron’s successful RICO and fraud suit against the U.S. lawyer and associates who masterminded an extortion scheme that included fraudulently procuring a $9.2 billion Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron. (Chevron Corp. v. Donziger, 974 F. Supp. 2d 362 (S.D.N.Y. 2014); aff’d Chevron Corp. v. Donziger, 833 F.3d 74 (2d Cir. 2016))