Jefferson E. Bell is a partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and is a member of the firm’s Litigation Practice Group. Mr. Bell has extensive experience in a wide variety of complex business and commercial disputes in federal and state courts, with an emphasis on financial services litigation, securities litigation, class actions, and antitrust matters.
Mr. Bell has been identified every year since 2014 as a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers New York Metro.
Representative public matters include:
- UBS: Represented UBS in multiple matters including the following:
- More than 30 federal class-action and individual lawsuits involving the alleged manipulation of LIBOR and other interest rate benchmarks. Multiple district courts have dismissed suits in their entirety and UBS alone defeated certification of the three principle class actions in the leading multi-district litigation.
- Antitrust class action litigation involving the alleged manipulation of the market for GSE Bonds by sixteen of the world’s largest financial institutions.
- Antitrust class action litigation alleging the manipulation of ICE LIBOR by the banks that make up the submission panel.
- AIG: Represented an AIG affiliate in its lengthy high-profile civil RICO, fraud, and breach of contract trial in the Southern District of New York against an originator of life settlements, which resulted in a successful settlement and was recognized by Benchmark Litigation as its “Impact Case of the Year” in 2016.
- BlackRock: Represented BlackRock in litigation alleging a purported criminal conspiracy with PIMCO to target MBS mortgage servicers.
- Chevron: Represented Chevron in the action that won a judgment of civil RICO liability against defendants for using corrupt means to obtain a $9 billion dollar judgment against Chevron in an environmental case brought in the courts of Ecuador. An injunction was obtained against Steven Donziger, the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs in the Ecuadorian case, and two of his clients, barring them from profiting from the $9 billion Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron, which the court found was procured by fraud.
- Royal Bank of Scotland: Represented RBS in successful resolution of a lawsuit alleging fraud in the sales of $300 billion dollars of residential mortgage-backed certificates.
- Guggenheim Securities: Represented Guggenheim Securities in connection with its litigation financial advisory practice in multiple matters.
- JPMorgan Chase: Represented JPMorgan Chase in connection with False Claims Act and FIRREA claims brought by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York related to mortgage-related government insurance program, including conducting a significant internal investigation related to these issues. Successfully resolved investigation and related qui tam litigation.
- Representing boards of various public companies in connection with lawsuits arising out of strategic transactions, including directors at Yahoo and Diamond Resorts.
Mr. Bell received his Juris Doctor cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2006. At Harvard Law School, Mr. Bell was an articles editor for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Prior to law school, Mr. Bell was a business strategy consultant for American Express in New York. Mr. Bell graduated from Harvard College in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering.
Mr. Bell is admitted to practice before the Southern and Eastern District Courts of New York, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, as well as New York state courts.