Eugene Scalia
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Eugene Scalia is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  He is Co-Chair of the firm's Labor and Employment Practice Group and Chair of the Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Group.  He also is a member of the firm's Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Group.

Mr. Scalia has a national labor and employment practice handling a broad range of matters involving the National Labor Relations Act, ERISA, sexual harassment and the anti-discrimination laws, and the many statutes administered by the Department of Labor.  He previously served as Solicitor of the U.S. Department of Labor, the Department’s principal legal officer with responsibility for overseeing nearly 500 lawyers in offices in Washington, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and throughout the country.  He was responsible for all Labor Department litigation under the scores of laws administered by the Department, including ERISA, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act.  Matters for which Mr. Scalia had substantial responsibility during his tenure included the Department's investigation of the Enron pension plans, amendment of the "white collar" overtime regulations, implementation of the "whistleblower" provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the Administration's successful intervention in the West Coast ports labor dispute.  

In private practice, representative employment matters include:

  • Advising clients on reductions-in-force and representation in putative class action litigation resulting from downsizings;
  • Retail Industry Leaders Ass’n v. Fielder, 475 F.3d 180 (4th Cir. 2007) – Successful challenge to controversial Maryland law that required increased expenditures on employee health care. 
  • Scopone v. King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. et al., Civ. No. 2:03-CV-30 (ED TN) - Dismissal of ERISA 401(k) fiduciary breach case on ground that plaintiff lacked standing and was an inappropriate class representation.
  • U.S. Chamber of Commerce v. U.S. Dept. Labor, 174 F.3d 206 (D.C. Cir. 1999) - Successful challenge under Administrative Procedure Act to "Cooperative Compliance Program," one of largest enforcement programs in OSHA's history.
  • Reich v. John Alden Life Ins. Co., 126 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 1997) - Successful defense of insurance company's wage and hour practices in widely-cited case.
  • Representation of companies and audit committees in many Sarbanes-Oxley "whistleblower" matters, including internal investigations and proceedings before the Department of Labor, administrative law judges, and the federal courts.

Mr. Scalia also has handled a range of appellate and regulatory matters, with particular concentration in litigation involving federal administrative rulemaking.  Representative matters include:

  • Chamber of Commerce v. SEC , 412 F.3d 133 (D.C. Cir. 2005), and Chamber of Commerce v. SEC,  443 F.3d 890 (D.C. Cir. 2006) - Two successful challenges to SEC's controversial mutual fund "governance" rule.
  • United States Telecom Association, et al. v. F.C.C. , 227 F.3d 450 (D.C. Cir. 2000) - Successful challenge to Federal Communications Commission regulation regarding telecommunications surveillance by law enforcement authorities.
  • SEC "Shareholder Access" Rulemaking (2003-04) - Representation of The Business Roundtable in SEC rulemaking regarding access to the company proxy for certain shareholders in director elections.
  • Deloitte & Touche v. Weller et al. (Tex. App. - Amarillo, 1998) - $90 million jury verdict reversed in accounting malpractice case and judgment rendered for client based on novel statute of limitations argument involving tax law and agency law.  

Mr. Scalia is the author of more than twenty articles and papers on labor and employment law, constitutional law, and other subjects, including an influential article on sexual harassment, "The Strange Career of Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment," 21 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 1433 (1998), cited in Burlington Industr., Inc. v. Ellerth , 524 U.S. 742 (1998).  In 2006 he was named regulatory compliance "Lawyer of the Year" by Institutional Investor's Compliance Reporter magazine, and "Top Washington, D.C. Lawyer" in Employment Litigation by the Washington Business Journal.  In 2007 he was named one of the 50 top litigators in the country under age 45 by American Lawyer, and one of the 500 leading lawyers in the country by Lawdragon.  He is listed in Who’s Who in America and is identified as a leading labor and employment lawyer in Chambers, the International Who’s Who of Management Labour & Employment Lawyers, PLC’s Which Lawyer?, and other publications. 


Mr. Scalia graduated cum laude from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review.  From 1992-93 he served as Special Assistant to U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr, receiving the Department’s Edmund J. Randolph Award.  He graduated With Distinction from the University of Virginia in 1985 and was a speechwriter to Education Secretary William J. Bennett before attending law school.  In the 2007-08 academic year he was a Lecturer in labor and employment law at the University of Chicago Law School.  He is a member of the bars of California, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, and numerous federal district courts and courts of appeals.