Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is an American multinational
law firm
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to ...
headquartered in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
. Founded in 1890, the firm includes approximately 1,400 attorneys and 1,000 staff located in 20 offices around the world, including
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north ...
and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...
,
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
,
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
, and the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
. The firm is known for its
litigation
-
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil act ...
practice, and in particular its strength in appellate law.
History
The firm was founded in May 1890 by Republican corporate attorney John Bicknel and Democratic litigator Walter Trask. In 1897, Judge James Gibson joined the firm. Six years later, the firm merged with another law firm, belonging to former Los Angeles city attorney William Ellsworth Dunn and assistant city attorney Albert Crutcher. The merger gave the firm its name, which it still uses today.
In 2007, the
Montana Supreme Court
The Montana Supreme Court is the highest court of the state court system in the U.S. state of Montana. It is established and its powers defined by Article VII of the 1972 Montana Constitution. It is primarily an appellate court which reviews ...
found that Gibson Dunn "acted with actual malice"W. Steve Seltzer v. Steve Morton, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, and Dennis A. Gladwell /ref> in suing an art expert Steve Seltzer, who said that a painting signed by
Charles Marion Russell
Charles Marion Russell (March 19, 1864 – October 24, 1926), also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an American artist of the American Old West. He created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Native Americans, an ...
was actually created by his grandfather Olaf Carl Seltzer, thus reducing its value. The Supreme Court said "GDC's use of the judicial system amounts to legal thuggery" and found that Gibson Dunn "blatantly and maliciously tried to intimidate Seltzer with the apparent power, prestige, and resources of a large, nationally prominent law firm coupled with an ominous lawsuit that they knew threatened to ruin and devastate him professionally, personally, and financially".
Notable cases
The firm is best known for its litigation practice, which has been named the top "Litigation Department of the Year" in the United States by ''
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
.
Gibson Dunn has been accused of unethical litigation tactics, and has been covered in the legal press for facing nearly one-million dollars in punitive sanction fees for facilitating discovery misconduct by Facebook. Gibson Dunn, defending Facebook for its illegal disclosure of data to Cambridge Analytica, engaged in objective "bad faith" and continued to do so notwithstanding federal judge Vincent Chhabria's discussion that Gibson Dunn should behave more ethically.
Some of the firm's notable cases include:
* The firm is representing
Chevron
Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to:
Science and technology
* Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines
* Chevron (anatomy), a bone
* '' Eulithis testata'', a moth
* Chevron (geology), a fold in rock la ...
in its long-running, $27 billion environmental dispute in
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...
. According to ''
The Intercept
''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing news website founded by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras and funded by billionaire eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar. Its current editor is Betsy Reed. The publication initially report ...
'', Gibson Dunn has hired private investigators to track
Steven Donziger
Steven R. Donziger (born September 14, 1961) is an American attorney known for his legal battles with Chevron, particularly '' Aguinda v. Texaco, Inc.'' and other cases in which he represented over 30,000 farmers and indigenous people who suffe ...
and created "a team of hundreds of lawyers to fight him". This resulted in a boycott launched in April 2021 by the student group Law Students for Climate Accountability.
* The firm represented George W. Bush in '' Bush v. Gore'', the litigation contesting certification of Florida's results in the
2000 United States presidential election
The 2000 United States presidential election was the 54th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 2000. Republican candidate George W. Bush, the governor of Texas and eldest son of the 41st president, George H. W. Bush ...
.
Theodore Olsen
Theodore Bevry Olson (born September 11, 1940) is an American lawyer, practicing at the Washington, D.C., office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Olson served as United States Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel (1981–198 ...
, the partner who argued the case for Bush in the Supreme Court, went on to serve as solicitor general in the Bush administration.
* The firm represented
Apple, Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
in its patent infringement suit against
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
(''
Apple v. Samsung
''Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronic Co., Ltd.'' was the first of a series of ongoing lawsuits between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics regarding the design of smartphones and tablet computers; between them, the companies made more than half of sm ...
'') relating to the Galaxy Nexus smartphone, and won an injunction in June 2012 blocking the sale of the Galaxy Nexus phone in the United States. The injunction was vacated in October 2012 based on the results of the trial. It also represented Apple in Epic Games v. Apple, a lawsuit related to Apple's practices in the
App Store
An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the c ...
and the removal of ''
Fortnite
''Fortnite'' is an online video game developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in three distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: ''Fortnite Battle Royale'', a free-to- ...
'' from the App Store.
* The firm is representing
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for co-founding the social media website Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), of ...
, founder of
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
, in a $17 billion contract dispute with purported seed money financier Paul Ceglia.
* The firm is defending
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...
against several multibillion-dollar antitrust lawsuits filed by AMD and the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
.
* The firm is representing CNN in its lawsuit against
President Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
and many of his staff on the basis of Jim Acosta's right to a "hard pass", a clearance to enter the White House.
* The firm is representing the
Dole Food Company
Dole plc (previously named Dole Food Company, Standard Fruit Company) is an Irish agricultural multinational corporation headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The company is among the world's largest producers of fruit and vegetables, operating wit ...
in a multibillion-dollar toxic tort suit in Nicaragua involving allegations of farmworker sterility stemming from Dole's use of certain pesticides. After the firm uncovered substantial evidence of fraud and a conspiracy between the plaintiffs and Nicaraguan judges to extort Dole out of billions with manufactured claims, courts in the United States dismissed multiple related suits against Dole and refused to enforce several Nicaraguan judgments.Litigation Department of the Year: Gibson Dunn - Law.com /ref>
* In 2009, the firm represented
NBC Universal
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are ...
in its contract dispute with
Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows for almost 28 years, beginning with '' Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' ( ...
.
* The firm represented Viacom in its billion-dollar copyright infringement lawsuit against
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
and
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
in
Viacom International Inc. v. YouTube, Inc.
''Viacom International, Inc. v. YouTube, Inc.'', 676 F.3d 19 (2nd Cir., 2012), was a United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decision regarding liability for copyright infringement committed by the users of an online video hostin ...
After multiple rulings at the District Court and Appellate Court, the case was settled in 2014.
*Governor
Chris Christie
Christopher James Christie (born September 6, 1962) is an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, lobbyist, and former federal prosecutor who served as the 55th governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018.
Christie, who was born in N ...
hired Gibson Dunn attorney Randy Mastro to conduct an internal investigation of the circumstances surrounding the
Fort Lee lane closure scandal
The Fort Lee lane closure scandal, also known as the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal or Bridgegate, was a political scandal involving a staff member and political appointees of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie colluding to cr ...
and representing the Governor in a later federal investigation. The firm was later criticized by U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton for its methods of record keeping, and accused the firm of "opacity and gamesmanship."
* Gibson Dunn provided advice to the private prosecutor responsible for conducting the criminal contempt case against
Steven Donziger
Steven R. Donziger (born September 14, 1961) is an American attorney known for his legal battles with Chevron, particularly '' Aguinda v. Texaco, Inc.'' and other cases in which he represented over 30,000 farmers and indigenous people who suffe ...
. Since Gibson Dunn also acts for
Chevron
Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to:
Science and technology
* Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines
* Chevron (anatomy), a bone
* '' Eulithis testata'', a moth
* Chevron (geology), a fold in rock la ...
, ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...
'' wrote that the collaboration raised issues of fairness.
* Gibson Dunn is representing the plaintiffs in '' Haaland v. Brackeen'' ''
pro bono
( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...
'' in seeking to overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act. This has led to accusations that Gibson Dunn is seeking to weaken federal protections for Native American tribes overall, opening the way for corporate exploitation of natural resources or Native American gaming.
Notable transactions
* The firm has represented tobacco companies.
*The firm advised
Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
Kraft
The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015.
A merger with Heinz, arran ...
in its $19.7 billion bid for
Cadbury
Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Mar ...
.
* Gibson attorneys advised
Heineken
Heineken Lager Beer ( nl, Heineken Pilsener), or simply Heineken () is a pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star.
History
On 15 Feb ...
in its $7.6 billion buyout of Mexican brewing conglomerate
FEMSA
Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V., doing business as FEMSA, is a Mexican multinational beverage and retail company headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico. It operates the largest independent Coca-Cola bottling group in the world and the ...
.
Political contributions
According to
OpenSecrets
OpenSecrets is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks data on campaign finance and lobbying. It was created from a merger of the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) and the National Institute on Money in Politics (NIMP) ...
, Gibson Dunn was one of the top law firms contributing to federal candidates during the 2012 election cycle, donating $1.45 million, 55% to Democrats. Since 1990, Gibson Dunn contributed $6.15 million to federal campaigns.
Controversy
In an article published by the Amazon Defense Coalition FDA, on August 15, 2018, on the digital media platform Corporate Social Responsibility wire it stated:
"The law firm engaged in practices based on the Gibson Dunn marketing playbook which involves what the firm calls the “kill step” to defeat the enforcement in the U.S. of civil money judgements obtained from foreign courts.The article states: The “kill step” usually involves accusing opposing counsel of “fraud” and other misconduct to try to intimidate them into withdrawing, thereby leaving the corporation's victims defenseless and unable to continue with their cases."
Notable attorneys and staff
*
Preet Bharara
Preetinder Singh Bharara (; born October 13, 1968) is an Indian-born American lawyer, author, podcaster and former federal prosecutor who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. He is curren ...
Robert C. Bonner
Robert Cleve Bonner (January 29, 1942) is an American lawyer and arbitration neutral, a former federal prosecutor, prosecutor, former United States federal judge, United States District Judge, former Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administ ...
, former Administrator of the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic en ...
.
*
Aileen Cannon
Aileen Mercedes Cannon (born 1981) is an American lawyer who serves as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Previously, Cannon worked for the corporate law firm Gibson Dunn in ...
,
United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida (in case citations, S.D. Fla. or S.D. Fl.) is the federal United States district court with territorial jurisdiction over the southern part of the state of Florida..
Appeals ...
*
Tom Cotton
Thomas Bryant Cotton (born May 13, 1977) is an American politician, attorney, and former military officer serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator for Arkansas since 2015. A memb ...
, former associate and current
U.S. Senator
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and power ...
.
* Michael J. Desmond, 48th Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service.
*
Miguel Estrada
Miguel Angel Estrada Castañeda (born September 25, 1961) is a Honduran-American attorney who became embroiled in controversy following his 2001 nomination by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Col ...
, U.S. Supreme Court practitioner and former nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
* James C. Ho, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
*
Theodore Olson
Theodore Bevry Olson (born September 11, 1940) is an American lawyer, practicing at the Washington, D.C., office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Olson served as United States Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel (1981–198 ...
, former
United States Solicitor General
The solicitor general of the United States is the fourth-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice. Elizabeth Prelogar has been serving in the role since October 28, 2021.
The United States solicitor general represent ...
Kelly Perdew
Kelly Crawford Perdew (born January 29, 1967) is an American businessman and winner of '' The Apprentice 2''.
Before ''The Apprentice''
Perdew was born in Lexington, Kentucky and was raised in Florida and Wyoming. Prior to winning the show, he ...
, former associate and reality television star on ''The Apprentice''.
* Jennifer H. Rearden,
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New ...
* Eugene Scalia, former Solicitor for the U.S. Department of Labor and former
United States Secretary of Labor
The United States Secretary of Labor is a member of the Cabinet of the United States, and as the head of the United States Department of Labor, controls the department, and enforces and suggests laws involving unions, the workplace, and all ot ...