​Megan Cooney is a Partner in the Orange County office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  She is a member of the firm’s Labor and Employment, Class Actions, and Litigation Practice Groups.

Ms. Cooney’s practice focuses on employment and class action litigation. She has represented employers in class actions, collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act, representative actions under the California Private Attorneys General Act, and individual actions in state and federal court alleging wage and hour violations, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful denial of benefits, harassment, and employment misclassification. Ms. Cooney has also represented clients in complex business litigation, including derivative lawsuits.

Ms. Cooney also has extensive experience advising employers regarding personnel policies, employee handbooks, job classification, termination issues, and other employment-related matters.  Ms. Cooney also represents clients in connection with workplace investigations and compliance audits.  She has represented clients in a wide variety of industries, including technology, finance, healthcare, retail, industrial services, manufacturing, entertainment, and transportation.

Most recently, Ms. Cooney was recognized by The Best Lawyers in America© as “Ones to Watch” for 2023 (Labor & Employment).

Ms. Cooney’s recent representative experience includes:

• Full trial victory for Grubhub, Inc. in Lawson v. Grubhub Holdings Inc., et al. (Northern District of California), in the nation’s first “gig economy” independent contractor misclassification case to go to trial.
• Defeating class certification for multiple clients, including related to claims premised on exemption misclassification (Northern District of California), failure to provide meal and rest periods (Central District of California), and timecard rounding (Central District of California).
• Compelling arbitration of claims in worker misclassification actions and defending mass arbitration campaigns for a major technology company.
• Securing full dismissal with prejudice of representative action involving novel issues related to director and officer standing.
• Favorable settlements in multiple actions, including after securing voluntarily dismissal of all class and representative claims.
• Advising clients in connection with major acquisitions and workforce restructuring.

Ms. Cooney earned her law degree magna cum laude in 2013 from Pepperdine University where she was a Literary Citation Editor for the Pepperdine Law Review and a member of the Interschool Appellate Advocacy Team.  She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science in 2010 from California Lutheran University, graduating summa cum laude.  Ms. Cooney is a member of the State Bar of California.