Gail E. Lees, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, specializes in trial and management of complex class actions.  Ms. Lees is chair of the firm's Class Action and Complex Litigation Practice Group, and she has been named nationally in The Legal 500 and listed as one of California's Top 75 Women Litigators by the California Daily Journal and one of Los Angeles' "Superlawyers" by Los Angeles Magazine.  She is a member of the firm's Executive Committee, and she also has served as co-chair of the Consumer and Personal Rights Committee of the American Bar Association.  Ms. Lees' practice has focused particularly on high-stakes litigation, and she has more than twenty-five years' experience in class actions involving consumer and advertising fraud, unfair competition, securities fraud,  and product liability issues.

Consumer Fraud Unfair Competition Law Act and Securities Litigation

Ms. Lees has been lead counsel on scores of cases involving fraud and misrepresentation claims, including consumer and contractual fraud, class actions and quasi-class actions. She also has had extensive experience with securities fraud class actions and derivative litigation, including the representation of a Big Six accounting firm in the three-month securities class action trial arising from the failure of Lincoln Savings & Loan Association. Ms. Lees' significant appellate experience includes representation of defendants in numerous cases before the California Supreme Court, including the only successful First Amendment challenge to claims for unfair business practices under California Business & Professions Code Section 17200.

Publications and Speeches

Ms. Lees has spoken and published extensively on consumer fraud and trial practice topics, including most recently:  "Removal and Remand Questions" (California State Bar Antitrust Section 2007); "Defenses to Unfair Competition Law Claims" (West LegalWorks 2007); "Emerging Trends in Class Litigation and CAFA Interpretation" (Strafford 2006); "The Removal Dilemma Under CAFA:  Is the Grass Greener?" (American Bar Association 2006); "Defending Section 17200 Claims" (Mealey's 2005, 2002); "The Defense of Governmental and Private Unfair Competition Law Claims" (Thomson/Glasser LegalWorks, 2005, 2003, 2002);"Defenses to Unfair Competition Law Claims," (PLI 2004, 2003, 2000); "Defenses to Unfair Competition Law Claims After Kraus and Cortez" (PLI 2002); "Analysis of Kraus and Cortez: The Glass is Half Empty," San Francisco Recorder (2000); "The Defense of Financial Privacy Litigation" (Glasser LegalWorks, 2000); "The Defense of Class and Quasi-Class Actions Under California's Unfair Competition Law" (California State Bar Environmental Law Section 2000); "The Defense Perspective" (California District Attorneys Association 1996); "The Emerging Class Action Litigation Threat" (Fulcrum 1996); "Market Conduct and Marketing: Pitfalls Under California Business & Professions Code" (Institute of Corporate Counsel 1996); "Effective Legal Strategies for a Changing World" American Bar Association Annual Meeting, Section of Litigation (Florida 1996); "Considerations in the Defense of Governmental and Private Actions Under Deceptive Trade Practices Acts" (ACI 1995); "Jury Selection" Civil Trial Strategies (PLI 1992); "Jury Selection Chapter" Civil Trial Practice: Strategy and Techniques (PLI 1986); "Libel and Invasion of Privacy" (California Continuing Education of the Bar 1981); and "Unsafe for Little Ears? The Regulation of Broadcast Advertising to Children," 25 UCLA Law Review 1131 (1978).

Education and Prior Experience

Ms. Lees is a 1979 graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the UCLA Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif, and a 1971 graduate of Northwestern University, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism. From 1979 to 1980, she was a law clerk to the Honorable Warren Ferguson on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and in 1978 she was a student extern to the Honorable Shirley Hufstedler, also on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Before attending law school, Ms. Lees was Associate Editor of New Worlds Magazine in Newport Beach, California.