Trey Cox

Trey Cox tries cases. Clients call him when the exposure is existential, the record is enormous, and twelve people in a jury box are going to decide the company’s future. He is Co-Chair of Gibson Dunn’s global Litigation Practice Group and Co-Partner in Charge of the Dallas office.

For thirty years Trey has tried high-stakes commercial cases to juries in state and federal courts across the country; he has taken more than 50 complex business disputes to verdict. In 2025, he was lead trial counsel for Energy Transfer LP and Dakota Access Pipeline in a three-week trial that produced a $667 million jury verdict, the largest in North Dakota history, and earned him The American Lawyer’s “Litigator of the Week”; the court entered final judgment of $345 million after remittitur. Two months later he tried a founders’ dispute to a Dallas County jury and won a $46 million verdict. Earlier in his career he secured a take-nothing verdict after a three-week jury trial in Abilene for the operator of the world’s largest wind farm, then defended the judgment on appeal.

He also undoes verdicts. In February 2026 he tried the equitable phase of a patent case in the Eastern District of Texas and eliminated a $175 million verdict against his client.

Trey has tried a series of the country’s largest team lift-out and trade secret cases, representing companies whose people, clients, and confidential information were taken by a competitor in a coordinated raid. He has tried those cases to verdict and resolved them in the middle of trial.

Chambers USA calls Trey “consistently recognized as one of the country’s best trial lawyers” and ranks him Band 1 in Trial Lawyers, General Commercial Litigation, and the Texas Regional Spotlight, and recognizes him nationally in Litigation: Trial Lawyers. Clients describe him as “a super-dynamic trial lawyer” who is “incredible in court and also incredible with clients.” He is a fellow of the American Board of Trial Advocates and the Litigation Counsel of America, double board certified in Civil Trial and Civil Pretrial Advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy, and was named to Bloomberg Law’s 2026 Unrivaled list and D CEO’s 2025 Dallas 500. His work is regularly covered in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg News, The Dallas Morning News, and the Houston Chronicle.

Trey builds trials the same way every time. He identifies the questions the jury will be asked to answer before discovery begins, then builds the themes, witnesses, exhibits, and arguments to teach jurors how to answer them. He has encoded that method into an artificial intelligence system built and deployed inside Gibson Dunn, which compresses the analytical work of a trial team from months to days without changing who makes the judgment calls. In a recent three-week jury trial, the system mined each day’s transcript overnight and delivered the admissions and contradictions that shaped the next morning’s cross-examination.

He teaches trial advocacy at the University of Virginia, the University of Texas, and SMU Dedman, and writes on persuasion and trial practice. After every jury trial he interviews the jurors about how they actually decided; that research became The Jury Rules, written with a former Texas state district judge.

Trey received a B.A., magna cum laude, from Washington & Lee University and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He clerked for the Honorable Jacques L. Wiener, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Representative Matters — Trials and Results:

• Lead trial counsel for Energy Transfer LP and Dakota Access Pipeline against Greenpeace International in a trespass and defamation trial, producing a $667 million jury verdict, the largest in North Dakota history, on trespass, conversion, nuisance, civil conspiracy, and defamation. The court entered final judgment of $345 million on February 27, 2026 following remittitur. Trey also obtained an antisuit injunction barring parallel proceedings abroad; on May 7, 2026 the North Dakota Supreme Court held that the trial court had abused its discretion in the scope of the injunction and remanded with directions to enter a narrowly tailored one.
• Tried the equitable phase for Verizon with Gregg Costa in Headwater Research v. Verizon in the Eastern District of Texas. After a one-day bench trial before Judge Gilstrap in February 2026, the court eliminated a $175 million patent verdict on the equitable defense of implied waiver.
• Lead trial counsel for the founders in GCP CiCi’s Inc. v. Dharod, obtaining a $46 million jury verdict in Dallas County plus a $9 million attorneys’ fee award on top. Judgment entered January 22, 2026; the case is on appeal.
• Lead trial counsel for Lockton in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri against Alliant Insurance Services, arising from the coordinated recruitment of Lockton producers. Alliant sought significant damages plus punitive damages and attorneys’ fees. The case resolved on confidential terms during trial.
• Lead trial counsel for Energy Transfer LP and its senior officers and directors in securities class action and shareholder derivative litigation in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the Northern District of Texas. Plaintiffs sought $2.1 billion. After the damages case was dismantled at summary judgment, the matter resolved for less than one percent of the amount claimed.
• Won summary judgment for GameStop in the District of Delaware against Bain & Company in a dispute over the validity of hundreds of millions of dollars of consulting contracts. The ruling led to a prompt resolution on confidential terms.
• Secured a take-nothing verdict after a three-week jury trial in Abilene, Texas, for the operator of the world’s largest wind farm in Rankin v. FPL Energy, defeating a mass nuisance action by surrounding landowners seeking to shut the project down, then defended the judgment on appeal in a decision widely regarded as a landmark for the wind energy industry.

Select Representative Engagements:

• Lead trial counsel for Meta in the action brought by the Texas Attorney General under the Texas biometric privacy statute, one of the largest damages claims ever asserted against a technology company.
• Obtained summary judgment for GE Vernova dismissing a $400 million fraud and breach of contract claim.
• Lead trial counsel for Purdue Pharma in the Oklahoma attorney general bellwether and the federal opioid MDL in Cleveland.

Honors and Awards:

• Awarded The American Lawyer’s “Litigator of the Week” for the Dakota Access Pipeline trial verdict, 2025
• Named to Bloomberg Law’s Unrivaled list, 2026
• Honored as a “Leader in His Field” in Chambers USA, General Commercial Litigation (Texas), 2009–2026
• Recognized by Chambers USA in the Trial Lawyers (Nationwide) category, 2026
• Recognized by Chambers USA in the Trial Lawyers (Texas) category, 2021–2026
• Selected by his peers as “Lawyer of the Year” in Energy Regulatory Law, Best Lawyers in America, 2026
• Listed in The Best Lawyers in America, 2009–2026
• Recommended Lawyer, Securities Litigation: Defense, The Legal 500 US, 2025
• Listed as one of the “500 Leading Lawyers in America” by Lawdragon, 2021–2026
• Listed as one of the “500 Leading Global Litigators” by Lawdragon, 2024–2026
• Recognized as a “Litigation Star” by Benchmark Litigation, 2012–2026
• Named one of the “Top 10 Super Lawyers in Texas” by Thomson Reuters, 2025–2026
• Listed as a “Texas Super Lawyer” by Thomson Reuters (as seen in Texas Monthly), 2004–2026
• Selected by the Dallas Business Journal as a “Defender” and “One of the 10 Metroplex Litigators Worth Having on Your Side,”
• Recognized as one of the most influential business leaders in North Texas, D CEO Dallas 500, 2025

Publications:

• How to Recover Attorneys’ Fees in Texas (with Jason Dennis), Texas Lawyer Press, published annually since 2011; current edition 2026
• Winning the Jury’s Attention: Presenting Evidence from Voir Dire to Closing, American Bar Association, 2012
• The Jury Rules: The Rules Every Juror Wants Every Trial Lawyer to Know and Use (with the Hon. James M. Stanton; foreword by the Hon. W. Royal Furgeson, Jr.), 2012
• The Texas Jury Rules: Ten Rules Every Courtroom Lawyer Must Know (with the Hon. James M. Stanton), 2011
• “Texas Business Courts 2.0: How SB 29 and HB 40 Are Reshaping Corporate Litigation,” The Advocate, 2024
• “AI Record Creation for Corporate Counsel,” 2025
• “Why Companies Want to Incorporate in Texas,” op-ed, 2025
• “What Is the Settlement Value?,” National Law Journal

Capabilities

• Litigation
• Energy and Infrastructure
• Intellectual Property
• Law Firm Defense
• Mass Torts and Product Liability
• Oil and Gas
• Securities Litigation
• State Attorneys General
• Technology Litigation
• Trade Secrets
• Trials

Credentials

Education:

• University of Virginia - 1995 Juris Doctor
• Washington & Lee University - 1992 Bachelor of Arts

Admissions:

• Georgia Bar
• Oklahoma Bar
• Texas Bar

Clerkships:

• US Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, Hon. Jacques L. Wiener Jr., 1995 - 1996