Marcellus Antonio McRae is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  He is a member of the firm's Litigation, Employment and Labor, White Collar Defense and Investigations, and Media and Entertainment Practice Groups.   Mr. McRae's litigation and white-collar criminal defense practices focus on a wide variety of business disputes, internal investigations, and criminal prosecutions including defense of individuals and corporations in cases involving allegations of: financial fraud, public corruption, violation of federal and state environmental regulations, health care fraud, wrongful death, criminal antitrust violations, and other matters.  He also represents and advises employers in a broad range of employment and labor matters including gender and race discrimination cases, wrongful termination and whistleblower claims, sexual harassment cases, and retaliation claims. 

Mr. McRae has tried a number of jury cases in both federal and state court.  He also writes and speaks on white-collar criminal defense, labor and employment law, and other topics.  From 1995 until joining Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in February 1998, Mr. McRae served as an Assistant United States Attorney with the Criminal Division, Major Frauds Section, of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.  While he was an Assistant United States Attorney, Mr. McRae investigated and prosecuted complex white-collar crimes (tax, securities, bankruptcy, and other business frauds) and traditional crimes that involved both jury and non-jury trial experience with a 100 percent conviction rate at trial.  He also drafted numerous appellate briefs filed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and had several arguments before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Prior to joining the United States Attorney's Office, Mr. McRae was an associate with Debevoise & Plimpton.

Mr. McRae is Co-Chair of the firm's White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice Group.

Mr. McRae was a 2003-04 co-chair of the Lawyer Delegates to the Ninth Circuit--Central District of California.  He has also served as an adjunct professor of Advanced Trial Advocacy at Loyola Law School and is an instructor at the national level of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy.   Mr. McRae has conducted mock jury trial demonstrations at numerous national American Law Institute-American Bar Association conferences and has been a featured panelist at numerous professional seminars regarding a wide range of topics including individual and corporate criminal defense, federal sentencing guidelines, employment litigation, and trial advocacy.  He has also appeared repeatedly on television and radio as a legal commentator on such programs as "CNN Talkback Live".  Mr. McRae is the chair of the Environmental Crimes Committee for the West Coast Chapter of the American Bar Association.  He is also currently a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Committee on Diversity in the Profession; the Board of Directors of the Federal Bar Association; the Executive Committee of the Criminal Justice Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association; the Attorney Discipline Committee for the Central District of California; and the Attorney Admissions Fund Board for the Central District of California.  Mr. McRae was also a member of the Steering Committee of the California Minority Counsel Program and the LAPD Police Commission Rampart Review Panel.

Mr. McRae received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1988. He earned a B.A. degree summa cum laude in 1985 from the University of California at Los Angeles, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Mr. McRae was listed among the top " 20 Under 40 " California lawyers by the Daily Journal in 2003.  In January 2004, Mr. McRae was selected by Law & Politics Magazine as one of California's "Superlawyers" in the area of Business Litigation, based on a survey of more than 65,000 California lawyers.  He was named in 2006 among the "New Stars, New Worlds" by Lawdragon magazine, which features up-and-coming talent and lawyers with fascinating new practices.  He has also authored several articles including " Is Government Knowledge a Defense to False Claims Liability: A Discussion of the Role of Government Knowledge Under the California and Federal False Claims Acts ," published by BNA, Inc., Federal Contracts Report , Volume 84, No. 11, September 27, 2005; " Gauging Organizational Exposure to Environmental Criminal Liability: A Comparison of the Proposed Environmental Sentencing Guidelines to the Organizational Guidelines and the Department of Justice's Revised Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations ," published by the American Bar Association for the National Institute on White Collar Crime in March 2004; " Proof and Pretext: Reeves provides some clarification of the burden-shifting formula in employment discrimination lawsuits ," published by the Los Angeles Lawyer in March 2004; "Seeking and Defeating Summary Judgment In Light Of Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products And Its Progeny " which was published in the ALI-ABA Course of S tudy-Employment Discrimination and Civil Rights Actions in Federal and State Courts , Volume 1 in May 2003; and "Grace Under Pressure: Fifteen Steps You Should Take To Manage a Search of Your Client's Office Pursuant to a Federal Warrant" published in the Corporate Counsel's Quarterly and The Lawyer's Brief , Volume 18, No. 3 in July 2002.  He is also the co-author of  "Closing Arguments," Chapter 37, Business and Commercial Litigation Treatise , West Publishing 1998.