2025
Annual Report

Our Business Restructuring and Reorganization Practice Group has set a new standard in the marketplace by designing and executing complex liability management exercises (LMEs) that have had a transformative impact on our clients, our firm, and cross-border markets. Anticipating the growth of the European market, our London office expanded its restructuring offerings in 2025 with the addition of senior partners Chris Howard and Presley Warner to provide clients with the most innovative restructuring solutions.

The bespoke, out-of-court solutions crafted by our global team enable borrowers to raise fresh capital, extend debt maturities, and stabilize operations—often avoiding the disruption, cost, and stigma of Chapter 11. For clients such as BlackRock, Blackstone, The Carlyle Group, Credit Suisse Asset Management, and Fidelity, LMEs have preserved enterprise value and mitigated downside risk in distressed credit markets across sectors.

Our team led over $80 billion in LMEs in the past year, earning the No. 1 spot in Octus’s 2025 Americas Restructuring Rankings of Most Retained Legal Advisors for All Engagements and Creditor Side Engagements. The team was also the No. 1 Lead Counsel in Debtwire’s Restructuring Advisory Mandates Report for the U.S. and Canada for the second year in a row, and the top Lenders’ Counsel for the fourth consecutive year.

Our court-tested solutions for complex capital structures set new industry benchmarks and now serve as a blueprint for the market. The ad hoc groups that we represented in the past year include:

• Quest Software lenders: Our landmark LME transferred the One Identity business to a structurally senior entity, facilitating mergers and acquisitions activity, debt incurrence, and discount capture. With 100% lender participation, the group secured key protections while preserving Quest’s ability to pursue accretive deals.
• Lenders to First Brands: Our team is representing an ad hoc group of prepetition and debtor in possession (DIP) lenders of First Brands Group in the high-profile bankruptcy cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. After intense negotiations with the unsecured creditors’ committee and the company, the court approved $4.4 billion in DIP financing provided by the ad hoc group, including a 3:1 rollup structure and related fees and expenses. The cases are large, complex, and challenging, with pervasive historical fraud that the company uncovered during and after the bankruptcy filing.
• A group holding over 90% of Altice France’s secured debt: Our team led a landmark deal to de-lever the group’s €24 billion balance sheet, spearheading Europe’s first large-scale cooperation agreement, introducing U.S.-style tools, and setting a new cross-border restructuring standard.

By blending U.S. and European legal regimes, the Altice France transaction set a benchmark in cross-border deal complexity and demonstrates how U.S.-style LMEs can be adapted across jurisdictions—informing a wave of restructurings outside the U.S.

Protecting innovation is more than a practice—it’s our passion. Our market-leading Intellectual Property (IP) Practice Group is trusted by the world’s most innovative companies to safeguard their most valuable assets, from breakthrough technologies and life sciences discoveries to creative content and global brands.

In 2025, Gibson Dunn was named The American Lawyer’s IP Litigation Department of the Year, recognizing a year defined by groundbreaking victories and precedent-setting results. Our lawyers delivered exceptional outcomes across every area of IP, at every forum—U.S. district courts, appellate courts, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), the International Trade Commission (ITC), and the U.S. Supreme Court—reaffirming our reputation as one of the most dominant IP practices worldwide.

Our success reflects unmatched technical and trial depth, and our commitment to shaping the future of IP law through strategic advocacy and relentless focus on clients’ objectives.

Patents

• Cisco: Three major jury victories, including CosmoKey v. Cisco/Duo Security ($140 million at stake); WSOU Investments v. Cisco, the first-ever jury win under the Section 273 prior commercial use defense; and Corrigent v. Cisco, a directed verdict eliminating $350 million in exposure.
• Global Technology Company: Defeated a $586 million claim in Virginia’s “rocket docket,” obtaining affirmance by the Federal Circuit.
• Dell EMC: Won summary judgment and $5 million in fees in ACQIS v. Dell EMC.
• Verizon: Obtained unprecedented trial court vacatur of $847 million jury verdict in the Eastern District of Texas, the first post-trial reversal of its kind.
• Western Digital: Reduced a more than $500 million verdict to just $1 in nominal damages through post-trial advocacy.
• Sun Pharmaceuticals: Vacated an injunction within an hour of argument at the Federal Circuit, reshaping the Hatch-Waxman irreparable-harm law.
• SharkNinja: Defeated iRobot and Dyson in simultaneous multi-forum global patent wars across the ITC, district courts, and PTAB.

Trade Secrets

• HSBC: Won early dismissal of most claims in a billion-dollar dispute tied to post-Silicon Valley Bank hires.
• Amrock / Rocket Mortgage: Persuaded Texas Supreme Court not to review the sealing order regarding a trade secret verdict previously overturned on appeal prior to new trial.

Trademarks & Copyright

• Dewberry v. Dewberry Engineers: Achieved a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court victory, overturning a $43 million damages award and clarifying Lanham Act profit recovery.
• Rimini Street v. Oracle: Secured a Ninth Circuit decision rejecting expansive derivative works theories, protecting software interoperability.

Gibson Dunn’s Labor and Employment Practice Group stands at the forefront of the most dynamic and high-stakes issues shaping the workplace today. From navigating the rapidly shifting landscape of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and defending against the rise of “reverse” discrimination litigation, to successfully challenging the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) nationwide non-compete ban, we are proud to lead in areas where the future of employment is being defined.

Our leadership on significant workplace issues has been recognized nationally for our innovation and results, including a record nine years in a row as The National Law Journal’s Labor and Employment Litigation Department of the Year and 12 times as Law360’s Employment Practice Group of the Year.

The Workplace DEI Task Force continues to publish updates regarding key litigation and legislative developments and has advised more than 130 clients on DEI-related matters. Notable recent representations include:

• Defending employers in discrimination and False Claims Act investigations relating to diversity programs.
• Representing universities subject to investigations by the Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
• Defending over 20 top law firms in sensitive employment matters, including 10 of the 20 law firms that received letters from the EEOC.

In the past year, we have also been trusted to handle some of the most significant labor and employment litigation, investigations, and government enforcement matters for the nation’s preeminent companies. Notable successes include:

• Amazon: Obtained a groundbreaking win for Amazon at a special sitting of the Maryland Supreme Court, in which the court recognized a de minimis defense under the state’s wage and hour laws in a case of first impression.
• UPS: Wiped out a $237.6 million verdict against UPS after being hired to handle post-trial motions and appeal in a major single-plaintiff retaliation and wrongful termination case.
• Enterprise Mobility: Won a First Circuit appeal on behalf of Enterprise Mobility, affirming decertification of a nationwide hybrid wage and hour class and collective action and dismissal of 1,500 Fair Labor Standards Act opt-in plaintiffs’ claims with prejudice.
• GRAIL: Obtained a rare full grant of summary judgment on behalf of public biotechnology company GRAIL in a case involving a former employee’s claims of race-based discrimination, harassment, and retaliation in violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.

With its deep bench, our Labor and Employment practice remains positioned as an undisputed leader on the employment issues that will shape the workplace in 2026 and beyond.

Our Real Estate Practice Group advises the world’s foremost real estate lenders and investors, including investment banks, private equity firms, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, insurance companies, and other top financial institutions, as well as some of the most sophisticated developers and operators on their most complex and high-value projects. The practice’s excellence is underscored by six Band 1 Chambers practice rankings and an impressive 32 individual partners recognized for their expertise and client service. With deep experience across financing, development, acquisitions, joint ventures, leasing, workouts, and disputes—and seamless collaboration with our corporate, funds, infrastructure, tax, restructuring, and litigation colleagues—we deliver comprehensive, business-focused solutions in every market cycle.

In 2025, our unparalleled practice continued to advise on transformative acquisitions, financings, recapitalizations, and redevelopments that are redefining all major asset classes. Notable successes include:

• Welltower: Advised Welltower on the $7.2 billion sale of its 18 million square foot outpatient medical building portfolio.
• RXR: Advised RXR on the recapitalization of the office building located at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, through its acquisition of a 49% stake in the property from Ivanhoe Cambridge.
• J.P. Morgan: Advised J.P. Morgan on the $675 million acquisition financing for 800 Fifth Avenue in New York.
• KKR: Advised KKR on the origination of a $578.4 million construction loan to be used to build a hyperscale data center containing multiple data halls in Virginia.
• Prevailing on construction defect claims in a large build-to-suit commercial lease arbitration in Washington, D.C.

To further safeguard client interests, we launched a Real Estate Disputes practice, enhancing our capacity to manage high-stakes matters involving distressed loans, entitlements, land use, joint ventures, purchase and sale agreements, leases, governance, and other distressed assets.

With the addition of recent laterals in our New York and London offices, including New York partners Frank Mangiatordi, David Perechocky, and Jennifer Yashar and London partners Hayden Cameron and Mark Manson-Bahr, we have further expanded our capabilities and deepened our strength in real estate disputes, leasing, lending, real estate investment trusts (REITs), mergers and acquisitions, joint venture governance, and cross-border transactions. This considerably enhances our ability to serve clients on both sides of the Atlantic as they navigate high-value real estate matters.

From traditional real estate to dynamic sectors such as data centers, build-for-rent, senior housing, hospitality, and REITs, Gibson Dunn is uniquely positioned to help clients unlock value, manage risk, and seize opportunity in 2026 and beyond.