Trey Cox is Co-chair of the firm’s global Litigation Practice Group and Co-Partner in Charge of the Dallas office. Trey is a trial lawyer with a robust commercial litigation practice, representing clients from a range of industries in large, complex, high-profile business disputes.
Chambers USA notes that Trey is “consistently recognized as one of the country’s best trial lawyers,” ranking him in Band 1 in its Trial Lawyers, General Commercial Litigation, and Texas Regional Spotlight categories. Clients describe him as “a super-dynamic trial lawyer” and note “he’s incredible in court and also incredible with clients.” In 2025, Trey and the Gibson Dunn team obtained a historic jury verdict for Energy Transfer LP and Dakota Access Pipeline in a three-week trial, a victory which earned him national recognition as AmLaw’s “Litigator of the Week.” Trey is perennially recognized in Benchmark Litigation, ranked one of the Best Lawyers In America, and his work is consistently featured in the nation’s most prominent media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News, Bloomberg News, and the Houston Chronicle, among others. Trey is a distinguished fellow of both the American Board of Trial Advocates and the Litigation Counsel of America. He is also double Board Certified in Civil Trial and Civil Pre-Trial by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Most recently, Trey was named to D CEO’s 2025 edition of Dallas 500, recognizing him as one of the most influential business leaders in North Texas.
Representative Matters
- Lead trial counsel for Energy Transfer LP as well as its senior officers and directors in both E.D. Pennsylvania and N.D. Texas securities class action and shareholder derivative actions challenging statements regarding various pipeline construction projects.
- Lead trial counsel for Energy Transfer LP and Dakota Access Pipeline in a historic
$667 million verdict in a trespass and defamation case. The jury's decision marked the largest verdict in North Dakota's history. The Gibson Dunn team’s strategic focus on ground torts and defamation claims led to favorable outcomes on multiple counts, including trespass, conversion, nuisance, civil conspiracy, and defamation. The verdict serves as a powerful affirmation of the First Amendment. - Lead trial counsel for Meta in $300B case brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, claiming Meta captured and used the biometric data of Texans without properly obtaining their informed consent to do so, in violation of Texas privacy laws.
- Lead trial counsel for GameStop in lawsuit in the federal district court of Delaware with Bain Consulting Group over validity of hundreds of millions of dollars of consulting services contracts.
- Lead trial counsel for Dakota Access Pipeline Energy suing Greenpeace International in largest case in the history of North Dakota, claiming that Greenpeace incited terrorist acts and vandalism as well as published repeated defamatory statements to generate publicity and interfere with the construction and operations of the pipeline.
- Lead trial counsel for Purdue Pharma Opioid in bellwether state Attorney General claim in Oklahoma and federal MDL in Cleveland. This lawsuit was vitally important to the client, the pharmaceutical industry, and, more broadly, healthcare consumers nationwide as it pitted the principles of healthcare freedom of choice and patient access to medical care against the state’s claims for astronomical damages.
- After a three-week jury trial in Abilene, Texas, Trey secured a take-nothing verdict for his client, the largest windfarm in the world, in a mass action by surrounding landowners seeking to shut down the windfarm as a public and private nuisance. The win was heralded as a landmark decision for the wind energy industry. Trey successfully defended the verdict all the way to the Texas Supreme Court.
Trey is also active outside the courtroom and deeply committed to serving the legal profession. Progressive and innovative, he has earned a reputation as a thought leader in using technology to create clear, memorable, and persuasive jury communications, creating courtroom presentations that make judges and juries take notice. He is a frequent thought leader and featured lecturer at many of the nation’s top law schools, including University of Virginia School of Law, University of Texas School of Law, and SMU Dedman School of Law, and he has written articles, white-papers, and books. Following each of his jury trials, he interviews the jurors to understand and analyze their decision-making and thought process. With the help of a former Texas state court judge, he has turned these interviews and insights into a book, The Jury Rules: The Rules Every Juror Wants Every Trial Lawyer To Know and Use.
Trey received a B.A., magna cum laude, from Washington & Lee University and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. After graduation, he clerked for the Honorable Jacques L. Wiener, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Honors/Awards
- Awarded AmLaw’s “Litigator of the Week” for securing a $667 million trial verdict for the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline
- Recognized as one of the most influential business leaders in North Texas by D CEO’s 2025 edition of Dallas 500
- Selected as a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA)
- Honored as a “Leader in His Field” in Chambers & Partners’ Chambers USA Guide to Leading Lawyers – General Commercial Litigation (Texas), 2009-2024
- Listed as a “Texas Super Lawyer” by Thomson Reuters (as seen in Texas Monthly), for 18 consecutive years, 2004-2024
- Named one of the “Top 100 Super Lawyers in Texas” and “Top 100 Super Lawyers in DFW” by Thomson Reuters, 2013-2024
- Recognized by his peers in D Magazine as one of the “Best Lawyers in Dallas” for 10 consecutive years and, prior to that, “Best Lawyer Under 40” for five consecutive years
- Listed as one of “The Best Lawyers® in America,” 2009-2025
- Listed as one of the "500 Leading Global Litigators" by Lawdragon, 2024
- Listed as one of the “500 Leading Lawyers in America” by Lawdragon, 2021-2025
- Recognized as a “Litigation Star” by Benchmark Litigation: The Definitive Guide to America’s Leading Litigation Firms & Attorneys, 2012-2024
- Listed as a Texas “Local Litigation Star” by Benchmark Litigation, 2023
- Selected by the Dallas Business Journal as a “Defender” and “One of the 10 Metroplex Litigators Worth Having on Your Side”
Publications
- Winning the Jury’s Attention, Presenting Evidence From Voir Dire to Closing
- The Texas Jury Rules, Ten Rules Every Courtroom Lawyer Must Know
- How to Recover Attorneys’ Fees in Texas, Everything You Need to Know About Attorneys’ Fees
- What is the Settlement Value?, National Law Journal
Capabilities
- Litigation
- Energy and Infrastructure
- Intellectual Property
- Law Firm Defense
- Oil and Gas
- Securities Litigation
- 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