Colin B. Davis is a partner in the Orange County office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher where he practices in the firm’s Litigation Department.  Mr. Davis has been recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America™ for his work in Mergers and Acquisitions Law.

Mr. Davis’s practice focuses on complex business and commercial litigation, with an emphasis on merger and acquisition and securities litigation.  Mr. Davis represents public and private companies and their officers and directors in stockholder class actions, stockholder derivative actions, and appraisal actions, as well as related litigation in state and federal courts throughout the country.  Mr. Davis also represents clients in a wide variety of other types of business litigation, including post-closing merger and acquisition disputes involving earnout provisions, fraud, and other contractual breaches.  Additionally, Mr. Davis has represented clients in connection with governmental investigations and enforcement actions brought by the SEC, Department of Justice, and other regulatory and enforcement agencies.

Mr. Davis’s representative matters include:

• Won summary judgment on behalf of the members of the board of directors of Newport Corporation in a stockholder class action alleging breach of fiduciary duty claims arising from the company’s merger with MKS Instruments. The Nevada Supreme Court fully affirmed the trial court’s rulings on appeal.
• Successfully represented China Housing and Land Development in a dissenters’ rights trial before the Eighth Judicial District Court for Clark County, Nevada, resulting in a favorable judgment that the company’s fair value was less than 10% of the amount sought by the dissenting stockholder.
• Represented four members of the board of directors of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings in an expedited trial before the Delaware Court of Chancery arising from a proxy contest initiated by the company’s executive chairman. Gibson Dunn’s clients prevailed in the proxy contest after the court issued its post-trial opinion.
• Representing Carvana, Inc. in multiple matters before the Delaware Court of Chancery, including a stockholder derivative action arising out of an equity offering and a putative class action challenging the company’s capital structure.
• Representing a cloud computing company in a statutory appraisal trial before the Delaware Court of Chancery.
• Representing a financial technology company in stockholder derivative litigation arising from the company’s acquisition of a popular music streaming platform.
• Representing a social media platform and its officers and directors in a securities class action and stockholder derivative litigation arising from a third party’s misuse of user data.
• Secured dismissal of a securities class action alleging that a major title insurance provider made false and misleading statements about its cybersecurity practices, resulting in voluntary dismissal of parallel stockholder derivative litigation.
• Successfully opposed a preliminary injunction motion that sought to enjoin a merger of two public gaming companies, resulting in voluntary dismissal of all claims.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Davis served as a law clerk to The Honorable Janis L. Sammartino of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.  Mr. Davis earned his Juris Doctor degree magna cum laude in 2010 from the University of San Diego School of Law, where he served as a Lead Articles Editor and Symposium Coordinator of the San Diego Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif.  In 2006, Mr. Davis received a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from Santa Clara University.

Mr. Davis is a member of the California bar, and is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Courts for the Central and Northern Districts of California.