December 4, 2014
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is pleased to announce that the firm has elected 12 new partners, effective January 1, 2015.
“We are immensely proud of our new partners and are pleased to welcome them to the partnership,” said Ken Doran, Chairman and Managing Partner of Gibson Dunn. “They are a talented group of attorneys whose energy, focus and dedication to teamwork will help us to continue providing clients with the highest levels of service.”
The new partners are:
Anne M. Champion (Litigation / Transnational Litigation – New York) – Champion practices complex commercial litigation, with a particular focus on transnational litigation and intellectual property litigation. She earned her law degree summa cum laude from George Washington University Law School, where she was the recipient of the Raymond F. Hossfeld Merit Scholarship, the Willard Waddington Gatchell prize for academic excellence, and the John F. Evans prize for outstanding achievement in the clinical law program D.C. Law Students in Court. She also served as an articles editor for the George Washington Law Review and was elected to Order of the Coif. She clerked for Judge Max Rosenn in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Winston Y. Chan (Litigation / White Collar – San Francisco) – Chan’s practice focuses on government and regulatory enforcement defense, internal investigations and compliance counseling, with particular experience in anti-corruption, antitrust, environmental, False Claims Act, financial fraud and healthcare matters. Chan joined Gibson Dunn after serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York from 2003 to 2011. Chan graduated in 2000 from Yale Law School, where he was on the Yale Law Journal. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Leonard B. Sand of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and then for Judge Chester J. Straub of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Jonathan L. Corsico (Corporate / M&A – Washington, D.C.) – Corsico’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, where he represents corporations, private equity firms and boards of directors in a wide range of matters, public and private, friendly and hostile, domestic and cross-border. Corsico also has significant experience representing clients in connection with stockholder activism, joint ventures, minority investments, syndicated lending transactions and general corporate matters. Corsico received his law degree magna cum laude from Northwestern University School of Law in 2003, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif, served on the Northwestern University Law Review and was awarded Senior Research Honors.
Blaine H. Evanson (Litigation / Appellate – Los Angeles) – Evanson’s practice is focused on appellate and complex commercial litigation. He has represented clients before federal and state appellate courts around the country, including in cases involving class certification, intellectual property, punitive damages, antitrust law, and constitutional law. In the trial court, Evanson has handled a wide variety of complex commercial disputes, and is particularly experienced in complex motion practice and providing strategic advice to trial counsel preparing for appeal. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 2006, where he was a James Kent Scholar and a Senior Editor on the Columbia Law Review. Before joining the firm, Evanson clerked for Judge A. Raymond Randolph of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Stacie B. Fletcher (Litigation / Environmental Litigation and Mass Tort – Washington, D.C.) – Fletcher’s practice focuses on environmental litigation and mass tort defense. She represents companies facing agency enforcement actions arising from alleged violations of environmental laws. Fletcher also has significant experience defending complex mass tort actions in both federal and state court and litigating cost recovery actions. Fletcher received her law degree in 2006 from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was Executive Editor of the Virginia Law Review.
Joanne Franzel (Real Estate – New York) – Franzel’s practice includes all forms of real estate transactions, including development, acquisitions and dispositions, financing (including construction lending), as well as office and retail leasing. Franzel received her law degree cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1980.
Neema Jalali (Litigation / Intellectual Property – San Francisco) – Jalali’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and counseling. He has handled all phases of patent litigation, including trial, in cases involving a variety of technologies such as computer software and hardware and medical devices. Jalali received a B.S. degree, with honors, in Computer Science from the California Institute of Technology and was a senior software developer at Oracle, where he was named co-inventor on several patents. While at Caltech, he served as chapter president of Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society, and as a teaching assistant for undergraduate computer science courses. He graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2006.
Joshua Lipshutz (Litigation / Appellate – San Francisco) – Lipshutz’s practice focuses on appellate and constitutional litigation. He represents clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the California Supreme Court, and other federal and state appellate courts. Lipshutz also serves as trial and appellate counsel in several high-impact constitutional cases raising issues of educational equality, marriage equality, and freedom of speech, among others. Lipshutz clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski. He graduated Order of the Coif from Stanford Law School in 2005, where he was Senior Articles Editor of the Stanford Law Review.
Alex Mircheff (Litigation / Securities – Los Angeles) – Mircheff focuses his practice on securities and appellate litigation. He has substantial experience representing issuers, officers, directors, and underwriters in class action and shareholder derivative matters. Before joining the firm, Mircheff served as a law clerk to Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and to Judge Gary A. Feess of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. He earned his law degree summa cum laude in 2006 from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, where he was the winner of the William T. Aggeler Award for ranking first in his graduating class, elected Order of the Coif, and served as a Note and Comment Editor on the Loyola Law Review.
Katherine V.A. Smith (Labor and Employment – Los Angeles) – Smith represents employers in all aspects of labor and employment law. She has extensive experience in single plaintiff and class action litigation at both the trial court and appellate level, including matters involving race, sex, sexual orientation, disability, and age discrimination and harassment; wrongful termination; retaliation; wage and hour laws; ERISA and employee benefits; unfair labor practices; and representative actions brought under the California Private Attorney General Act. Smith earned her law degree in 2006 from the University of Virginia, where she was a member of the editorial board for the Virginia Law Review.
Paul E. Torchia (Litigation / Intellectual Property – New York) – Torchia has litigated patent cases in a wide range of technical fields, including consumer electronics, telecommunications, computer hardware and software, networking technology, biotechnology, and medical devices. Torchia obtained his law degree cum laude in 2000 from Cornell University Law School, where he was an editor of The Cornell Law Review.
Avi Weitzman (Litigation / White Collar / Commercial – New York) – A former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, who served as a member of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force and awarded the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, Weitzman’s practice covers a wide range of complex commercial and criminal matters, including white collar criminal defense, securities enforcement defense, internal investigations, transnational litigation, and complex commercial and intellectual property litigation. Weitzman received his law degree in 1999 from Harvard Law School, where he was a Senior Editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Following law school, Weitzman was a Fulbright Scholar in Israel, where he clerked for Justice Dalia Dorner of the Israeli Supreme Court, and then for Judge Shira A. Scheindlin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.