Writing for the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, partners Hillary Holmes and Gerry Spedale, along with associate Jason Ferrari, explore recent legislative developments that mark a significant step in Texas’s broader effort to remain a premier destination for corporations.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP has bolstered its Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity Practice Groups in Singapore with the appointment of Gwenlynne Lee to the team as an of counsel.
Commenting on her arrival, Fang Xue, Partner in Charge of the Singapore office, said: “Gwenlynne’s arrival strengthens our transactions bench in Singapore. Gwenlynne is a versatile lawyer with vast experience spanning from early-stage investments to control deals, representing both strategic companies and private equity funds. We’re pleased to welcome her to the firm.”
The firm continues to invest in strategic practice areas in Singapore, and Gwenlynne’s appointment follows the arrival of Hagen Rooke in its Financial Regulatory Practice Group in this office in January.
About Gwenlynne Lee
Gwenlynne has experience representing private equity funds, corporations, and emerging companies in cross-border acquisitions, take-privates, growth equity investments, series financings, and joint ventures. Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Gwenlynne had worked with leading international law firms in Singapore and Hong Kong. Gwenlynne earned her Bachelor of Arts (Jurisprudence) from the University of Oxford and received her Master of Laws from the London School of Economics. She is admitted to practice in Singapore, Hong Kong, and New York and is fluent in English and Mandarin.
Gibson Dunn advised Neinor Homes on financing matters and U.S. law aspects of launching its €1.070 billion tender offer to acquire AEDAS Homes.
With this acquisition — the largest M&A transaction in the sector over the past decade — Neinor obtains a sizable portfolio across Spain’s most dynamic regions (50% of the portfolio is concentrated in Madrid) and emerges as the largest and most diversified residential developer in Spain.
Our team in London was led by partners Federico Fruhbeck and Hugo Hernández-Mancha and included of counsel Cason Moore.
A Gibson Dunn team recently secured a complete jury verdict in favor of our clients Cisco and Duo, defeating all claims brought by CosmoKey, which had alleged patent infringement related to verification technology. CosmoKey asserted a single patent and sought nearly $140 million in damages, along with a running royalty.
Following a five-day trial, the jury returned a verdict for our clients on all grounds, including of non-infringement, prior commercial use by defendants, and invalidity of the patent.
This is believed to be only the second-ever verdict of prior commercial use under 35 U.S.C. § 273(a) since its enactment more than a decade ago. The first occurred earlier in 2025, also with partner Brian Rosenthal as lead counsel. This marks Cisco’s third consecutive patent trial victory in 2025 with Brian as lead counsel, following wins in January and February.
Our trial team included partner Jaysen Chung and associates Nathan Scharn, Yana Nebuchina, Erin Kim, and Julian Manasse-Boetani
In the latest episode of the Blockcast podcast, partner Hagen Rooke discussed the potential impact of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) new regulations requiring local crypto firms targeting overseas markets to halt operations or face fines of up to $200,000.
Hagen told Blockcast listeners that, far from signaling the end of crypto in Singapore, the regulatory changes are incremental and likely to affect only a small number of crypto service providers. He acknowledged that the way the new rules were communicated may have been unintentionally “fear-inducing,” but emphasized that they were expected and had been in the pipeline since 2020.
“You can have innovation with good regulation,” he said. “Many in the industry want a stringent, gold-standard of regulation.”
Thirty-two Gibson Dunn lawyers have been named to the inaugural Lawdragon 500 Global Leaders in Crisis Management list, which recognizes the “rising convergence in law practice and strategy of increased oversight in a global environment.”
Kudos to partners Matthew S. Axelrod, Amanda M. Aycock, Matt Benjamin, Ryan T. Bergsieker, Barry H. Berke, Robert C. Blume, Michael D. Bopp, Reed Brodsky, Stephanie Brooker, David P. Burns, John W.F. Chesley, Jina L. Choi, Collin J. Cox, Lee R. Crain, M. Kendall Day, Stuart F. Delery, Mylan L. Denerstein, Michael H. Dore, Patrick Doris, Theane Evangelis, Douglas Fuchs, Brian W. Gilchrist, Richard W. Grime, Nicola T. Hanna, Sacha Harber-Kelly, Dani R. James, Christopher M. Joralemon, Michael Martinez, Karin Portlock, Orin Snyder, Maurice Suh, and Debra Wong Yang.
Gibson Dunn has been honored by the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland (PBRC) with the 2025 Law Firm Pro Bono Service Award. The award recognizes “innovative approaches to the delivery of free legal services and the encouragement of participation by the greatest number of attorneys relative to that firm’s size.”
In announcing the award, the PBRC commended our firm for its commitment to ensuring that “all people, regardless of their income level, could access zealous legal representation and vindicate their rights through the courts.”
In 2024, our lawyers dedicated more than 206,000 hours to pro bono work across a wide range of issues — the result of a joint effort across all our 21 offices, with more lawyers participating than ever before.
Congratulations to partner Vera Lukic on being named 2026 Lawyer of the Year in the Paris – Outsourcing category.
Vera is a member of the firm’s Privacy, Cybersecurity, and Data Innovation; Artificial Intelligence; Strategic Sourcing and Commercial Transactions; and Technology Transactions Practice Groups.
Read more: https://www.bestlawyers.com/lawyers/vera-lukic/244840
The Best Lawyers in France™ 2026 has named 15 Gibson Dunn Paris lawyers as leaders in their respective practice areas, and The Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in France™ 2026 has included four of our lawyers.
The Best Lawyers in France™ 2026:
- Darko Adamovic (Energy Law; Project Finance and Development Practice)
- Ahmed Baladi (Information Technology Law; Intellectual Property Law; Outsourcing; Privacy and Data Security Law; Technology Law; Telecommunications Law)
- Amanda Bevan-de Bernède (Banking and Finance Law; Insolvency and Reorganization Law)
- Clarisse Bouchetemblé (Mergers and Acquisitions Law)
- Eric Bouffard (Insolvency and Reorganization Law; International Arbitration; Litigation; Product Liability Litigation)
- Bertrand Delaunay (Corporate Law; Insolvency and Reorganization Law; Mergers and Acquisitions Law; Private Equity Law)
- Jérôme Delaurière (Tax Law)
- Jean-Pierre Farges (Arbitration and Mediation; Banking and Finance Law; Insolvency and Reorganization Law; Litigation)
- Pierre-Emmanuel Fender (Insolvency and Reorganization Law; Litigation)
- Benoît Fleury (Corporate Law; Insolvency and Reorganization Law; Leveraged Buyouts; Mergers and Acquisitions Law; Private Equity Law)
- Nataline Fleury (Insolvency and Reorganization Law; Labor and Employment Law)
- Ariel Harroch (Corporate Law; Leveraged Buyouts; Mergers and Acquisitions Law; Private Equity Law; Real Estate Law; Securities Law; Tax Law)
- Patrick Ledoux (Corporate Law; Mergers and Acquisitions Law; Private Equity Law)
- Vera Lukic (Information Technology Law; Intellectual Property Law; Media Law; Outsourcing; Privacy and Data Security Law; Technology Law; Telecommunications Law)
- Julia-Barbara Michalon (Banking and Finance Law; Insolvency and Reorganization Law; Structured Finance Law)
The Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in France™ 2026:
- Martin Guermonprez (Insolvency and Reorganization Law)
- David Hania (Insolvency and Reorganization Law)
- Arnaud Moulin (Banking and Finance Law)
- Charles Peugnet (Insolvency and Reorganization Law)
Gibson Dunn represented an ad hoc group of lenders to Quest Software Inc. (Quest) in a cutting-edge liability management transaction.
The transaction entailed the movement of Quest’s One Identity business to a structurally senior entity to facilitate future M&A activity, debt incurrence, and material discount capture. With 100% participation from the first and second lien lenders, the ad hoc group negotiated significant creditor protections around any acquisitions by, or dispositions of, the One Identity business, while preserving Quest’s ability to pursue accretive M&A transactions.
Our team was led by partners Scott Greenberg, Steven Domanowski, and Stephen Silverman, and included of counsel Christina Brown and associates Jonathan Dunworth and Sue Su.
Partner Caith Kushner, of counsel Ryan Searfoorce, and associates Patrick Perrier, Julia Sweitzer, Melody Karmana, Kaylin Chavez Ervin, and Ruoqi Wei advised on finance. Partner (retired) Steven Shoemate and associate Brennan Halloran advised on M&A. Partner Edward Wei and associates Sumaya Bouadi and Eugene Wei-En Woo advised on tax.
Gibson Dunn is pleased to announce that Carolyn (Caro) Abram has joined the firm’s Dubai office as a partner in its Investment Funds Practice Group.
Commenting on Caro’s arrival, Shukie Grossman, Global Chair of Gibson Dunn’s Investment Funds Practice Group, said: “Caro is a rising star in funds work in the Middle East and North Africa, representing both regional sponsors and institutional investors, and makes an excellent addition to our expanding Investment Funds practice. She will work closely with colleagues in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Riyadh, as well as with lawyers on the Investment Funds team globally.”
Marwan Elaraby, Partner in Charge of Gibson Dunn’s Dubai office, added: “We continue to see many opportunities to support our regional, inbound, and outbound clients in the Middle East. Caro’s arrival adds even more depth to our transactional platform in the region, where we are seeing the results of our significant investments in recent years.”
“Clients are seeking creative, compliant, and market-ready solutions — I am excited to extend Gibson Dunn’s world-class Investment Funds practice to the Middle East, so we can deliver exactly that, helping to position clients for the growth and success we are seeing in this region,” said Caro.
Gibson Dunn’s elite Investment Funds Practice Group advises sponsors across all geographies, asset classes, and matter types. The team is recognized as a leading practice in Chambers Global, Chambers Asia-Pacific, and Chambers USA 2025, which describes it as “the go-to firm and one-stop shop for all clients’ legal needs.” The practice continues to grow internationally, with market-leading partner James O’Donnell and of counsel Hannah Watson Fanin joining the team in London in recent weeks.
About Caro Abram
Caro is recognized for her advice to fund sponsors on the formation and structuring of private investment funds spanning asset classes and jurisdictions. With a proven track record in guiding clients to successful fund launches, Caro advises on every stage of fund formation, from initial structuring and regulatory navigation to closings and operation. Her practice also encompasses advising on related investment arrangements, such as seed and stake investments, asset manager joint ventures, co-investment and warehousing arrangements, carried interest structures, secondaries transactions, and fund restructurings. She additionally represents institutional investors on their capital placements into private funds, co-investment structures, and managed accounts. Caro’s regulatory expertise supports both regional and global asset managers looking to establish or expand operations in the Middle East and North Africa.
She is ranked as Up and Coming for Investment Funds, Middle East-wide, in Chambers Global 2025, where clients describe her as “really excellent” and as having “a lot of expertise concerning the jurisdiction and investors in the region.” Legal 500 UAE has recognized Caro as a Next Generation Partner for Investment Fund Formation and Management, and Lexology Index has recognized her for Private Funds – Regulatory. Caro earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Oxford.
Gibson Dunn earned 60 practice area rankings, including 17 top-tier rankings, in the 2025 edition of The Legal 500 – United States.
Individually, the firm achieved 17 Hall of Fame rankings, which recognize individuals who consistently receive outstanding client feedback for continued excellence. Additionally, the firm achieved 52 Leading Partners rankings, as well as nine Next Generation Partner rankings and one Leading Associate ranking.
The following practice groups include partners recognized as leading partners:
Next Generation Partners & Leading Associates
Partner Eric Sloan, Co-Chair of our Tax Practice Group, told Tax Notes (subscription required) that he agrees with business groups urging the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to withdraw a revenue ruling on related-party basis shifting. Eric said the IRS should pull Rev. Rul. 2024-14 because “it really isn’t an appropriate topic for a ruling — it’s not a ‘clean’ legal issue.” He added: “More importantly, though, its analysis is flawed, most notably by neglecting the all-important relevance analysis.”
Commenting for an article in Politico on Senator Lindsey Graham’s expansive Russia sanctions bill, which would see the U.S. impose 500% tariffs on countries that buy Russian energy and which appears to have widespread Congressional support, partner Adam Smith said, “There is a sense in the Senate that more sanctions on Russia need to be imposed, or ought to be imposed,” and that Congress may be “pressuring the executive branch to act.”
Read the full article, “Graham’s ‘Bone Crushing’ Russia Sanctions Bill Could Freeze US Trade with the World’s Largest Economies,” in Politico.
Partner Mohamed AlHasan and associate Hadeel Tayeb take a detailed look at Saudi Arabia’s new Trade Name Law. Writing in The Oath, they highlight how the law enhances transparency, secures commercial identities, and increases business interest in the Kingdom. They also examine key changes introduced by the law, including new processes and their impact on business.
“This law reform marks yet another significant step in the modernisation of Saudi’s legal framework, streamlining processes and fostering a transparent, efficient business landscape.”
Partner Prerna Soni has been named to the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council’s 20 Under 40 list, which recognizes and celebrates “outstanding young commercial real estate finance professionals who are reshaping the industry” with their creativity, determination, innovation, and fresh perspectives.
Partners Collin Cox, Sydney Scott, Gregg Costa, Andrea Smith, and Trey Cox recently spoke to Texas Lawyer about the strategic growth of our Houston trial team. As Collin told the publication, “The plan was, and is, to build the best litigation department in Houston with the resources of a big firm like Gibson Dunn.”
Gibson Dunn Building Trial Team in Houston With Lawyers Drawn to the Courtroom
After launching its Houston office in 2017 with transactional partners, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has strategically built a trial team over the last four years.
Law.com | Texas Lawyer
By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys
June 05, 2025
Since the hiring of litigation partner Collin Cox in 2021, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has strategically built a trial practice within its eight-year-old Houston office, which was launched with a splashy team of Big Law transactional partners.
Cox, who came from trial boutique Yetter Coleman as the first trial partner in the office, made the move with the goal of building a litigation practice on the firm’s Big Law platform. In 2022, the firm hired litigation partners Sydney Scott, formerly a partner with Houston’s Smyser Kaplan & Veselka, and Gregg Costa, who stepped down from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and joined the Houston team.
“The plan was, and is, to build the best litigation department in Houston with the resources of a big firm like Gibson Dunn,” Collin Cox said.
The trial team has grown to four partners—New York partner Andrea Smith recently transferred to the Houston office—and 13 associates, with more on the way in the fall.
Trey Cox, a Dallas partner who is co-chair of the firm’s global litigation practice group, said the plan is to continue to strategically grow the Houston trial team by acquiring “excellent talent at both the top end and at the junior level.”
“Look, it’s going great. Litigation is continuing to grow. We’ve got all of these companies moving in here. The economy has made the corporate side of things a little more uneven, the uncertainty, but frankly that uncertainty is good for litigation,” Trey Cox said.
Trey Cox, who joined Gibson Dunn’s office in 2020 from Lynn Pinker Cox & Hurst, said Houston was an outlier among Gibson Dunn offices when it lacked a litigation team. After he joined the firm in Dallas, he started working on recruiting Collin Cox to be the base of the Houston litigation team.
Bolstered by the associates, the team of Cox, Scott and Costa tried seven lawsuits to trial or arbitration in 2024.
And in 2025, a team led by Collin Cox, Costa and Trey Cox won a verdict in state court in North Dakota against environmental organization Greenpeace and affiliates. The jury awarded their clients nearly $667 million, after finding Greenpeace defamed the companies and incited protesters to trespass on their property and disrupt construction efforts.
“We had three first-chair lawyers. That’s crazy. I’m not sure who else can put three first-chair lawyers on the floor,” Trey Cox said.
“It’s a great place in terms of people and quality of work,” Collin Cox said.
Scott said when she decided to leave Smyser Kaplan, she figured Gibson Dunn would be a good fit, because the firm has a reputation for getting hired for “landmark cases” and winning them. And, she said, “I love trying cases.”
“I didn’t think that when I started at Gibson Dunn [that] I would have a year like last year. I tried four cases in a year, which is pretty remarkable,” she said.
Her trials included two defending Johnson & Johnson in talcum powder cases — one in Miami that ended in a hung jury, and one with Collin Cox in Dallas that settled during trial.
The number of significant trials shows that Collin Cox’s vision for growing the practice has panned out, she said, because they have been busy and getting hired for big lawsuits, some out of state, like the North Dakota litigation for Energy Transfer and the Dakota Access Pipeline.
“Texas has some of the best trial lawyers in the country, but the opportunity for me to take associates to Miami Dade County to try a case has sharpened us all as lawyers [with the] opportunity to argue to other jury pools,” Scott said.
Costa said that when he decided to leave the bench, he wanted to practice at a firm where litigation “really matters,” and it is roughly 50% of the work at Am Law 100 firm Gibson Dunn. The Houston office was also in a “sweet spot,” because it was “effectively launched” in 2017 and has grown.
In his view, the litigation team in Houston is doing what many Big Law firms don’t do, which is actually going to trial and also focusing on giving younger lawyers an active role in the trial.
“I gave up the federal bench and I didn’t want to go somewhere and shuffle paper,” he said.
Collin Cox, co-partner in charge of the Houston office, said the team sees potential for work stemming from the new Texas Business Court, a specialty court launched in 2024 to handle certain commercial disputes.
Costa, global co-chair of the Gibson Dunn trials practice group, said it’s not just the number of lawsuits the Houston team has tried, but the variety of litigation, including commercial, oil and gas litigation, and defending Johnson & Johnson in talc cases.
Reprinted with permission from the June 5, 2025 edition of “Texas Lawyer” © 2025 ALM Global Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited, contact 877-256-2472 or asset-and-logo-licensing@alm.com.
Partner Jason Schwartz told The Wall Street Journal that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing a woman to pursue a claim that she was denied a promotion because she is straight “will supercharge the current wave of reverse discrimination lawsuits by removing a significant obstacle for plaintiffs.”
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court found that the lower appeals court was wrong to require the plaintiff to show “background circumstances” indicating anti-straight bias by her employer — a burden that would not have applied had the plaintiff been gay.
Litigation Daily’s Litigator of the Week has recognized a pro bono team of Gibson Dunn lawyers for their precedential appellate win in a New Jersey anti-SLAPP case:
Shout-out to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Akiva Shapiro and associate Brian Yeh, who got an appellate win reviving a request for fees under New Jersey’s recently enacted anti-SLAPP law. The Gibson Dunn team represents a Jewish news outlet, two religious groups and a rabbi facing claims related to flyers and posts urging Bergenfield resident Allen Satz to grant his wife a religious divorce. In the first published decision under the state’s Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, New Jersey’s Appellate Division unanimously held last week that Satz’s voluntary dismissal of his complaint didn’t allow him to escape the defendants’ request for fees. Doing so, the court wrote, “would contravene legislative intent and create a loophole in the UPEPA allowing SLAPP plaintiffs to financially harm New Jersey residents who are the subject of their lawsuits and then strategically dismiss their suits, depriving our residents of the statutory right to seek recompense.” The Gibson Dunn team included associates Dillon Westfall, Apratim Vidyarthi, Stephanie Silvano and Beshoy Shokralla.
To read the complete article, visit Law.com (subscription required).
Reprinted with permission from the June 6, 2025 edition of “The AmLaw Litigation Daily” © 2025 ALM Global Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited, contact 877-256-2472 or asset-and-logo-licensing@alm.com.
Gibson Dunn advised Sammons Financial Group on its entry into a definitive agreement to acquire Wealthcare, a Registered Investment Advisor firm and platform services provider.
Our team was led by partners Michael Piazza and Carlos Soto and included and associates George Hang, Steve Wright, Mariana Lozano, and Yaz Kaveh.
Partner Matt Donnelly advised on tax; partner Matthew Schwartz advised on corporate; partner Sean Feller and associate Kayoko Fong advised on employee benefits and executive compensation; partner Cassandra Gaedt-Sheckter and associates Courtney Wang and Mitchell Zia advised on data privacy and security.