Katherine Maddox Davis is a litigator in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Katherine defends and advises corporations navigating high-stakes disputes and investigations where legal exposure intersects with institutional scrutiny, sensitive business relationships, public reputation, and technology-driven enterprise risk. These issues frequently arise from data governance, market conduct, and complex contractual frameworks.
Katherine helps her clients harness law and media to cast a hopeful vision for civil society, diffusing efforts that malign corporations, mislead consumers, and divide communities. That requires rapid assessment and response in and out of court, often coordinating among legal, communications, compliance, and executive stakeholders.
Among private matters, Katherine has conducted internal investigations to develop long-term enterprise risk assessments and mitigation strategies for Fortune 50 corporations, and developed white papers explaining misunderstood market forces. Among public matters:
- Negotiated with U.S. Department of Justice national security officials and briefed application for unsealing grand jury records on alleged foreign interference in presidential election for The Washington Post and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. In re Grand Jury Subpoena No. 7409, No. 1:24-mc-115 (D.D.C. Jan. 14, 2025).
- Led 40+ pre-arbitration drug pricing dispute resolution conferences between OptumRx officers and independent pharmacies. OptumRx, Inc. v. A&S Drugs LLC, No. 8:22-cv-00468 (C.D. Cal. Feb. 23, 2024).
- Secured service of foreign sovereign and prevailed in sovereign’s service challenges, contributed to briefing securing recognition of $6.5b ICSID arbitration award for mineral mining expropriation. Tethyan Copper Co. Pty Ltd. v. Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 590 F. Supp. 3d 262 (D.D.C. 2022).
- Briefed appeal securing $100m reduction in NY AG’s cigarette trafficking fines against UPS. New York v. United Parcel Serv., Inc., 942 F.3d 554 (2d Cir. 2019).
- Challenged sitting congressman’s defamation suit over news reporters’ Twitter content, defeating conspiracy theories in emergency briefing. Devin G. Nunes v. The McClatchy Company, et al., No. CL19-629 (Va. Cir. Ct. Sept. 9, 2019).
- Briefed emergency motions raising FAA challenges to NFL arbitration, delaying Zeke Elliott’s suspension for alleged uncharged, off-field conduct. Nat’l Football League Mgmt. Council v. Nat’l Football League Players Ass’n, No. 17-3510 (2d Cir. Nov. 3, 2017).
A former E.D. Va. law clerk, Katherine appears frequently in the Alexandria Division, known for its emergency relief, national security, regulatory, and government contracts dockets. Representative matters include:
- Pursuing Anti-Terrorism Act and Torture Victim Protection Act relief for Israeli woman kidnapped by terrorist organizations in Iraq. Saleem v. Al-Haq et al., No. 1:24-cv-02094 (E.D. Va. Nov. 19, 2025).
- Secured favorable mediation outcome in environmental regulation and land use contract dispute. Gainesville Associates, LLC v. Atlantic Research, LLC et al., No. 1:24-cv-1543 (E.D. Va. Jan. 13, 2025).
- Pursued intervention and record production on alleged election interference for The Washington Post and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. United States v. Manafort, et al., No. 1:18-cr-83 (E.D. Va. Oct. 23, 2024).
- Intervened in dormant terrorism prosecution, secured Crime Victim Rights Act status for Yazidi women trafficked by ISIL. United States v. Nisreen Assad Ibrahim Bahar, No. 1:16-mj-63 (E.D. Va. Nov. 12, 2021).
- Settled wrongful termination claim. Boersma v. Amazon Data Services, Inc., No. 1:21-cv-00295 (E.D. Va. Aug. 24, 2021).
- Negotiated wrongful reentry plea, argued sentencing hearing, secured below-guidelines sentence (assisting the Federal Public Defenders Office). United States v. Martinez, No. 1:18-cr-216 (E.D. Va. Sept. 26, 2018).
Katherine is also a former Fifth Circuit clerk. She has been recognized by Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America for Appellate Practice each year since 2023.
Katherine’s litigation teams have secured client success in industry-defining disputes, including drug pricing challenges brought by independent pharmacies against OptumRx in some of the nation’s most plaintiff-friendly jurisdictions; and coronavirus-related business insurance claims for uncovered profit losses that stood to upend the insurance industry. Among them:
- Full merits dismissal of drug pricing dispute, prevailing on case-dispositive theory that plaintiffs’ damages model was triply inadmissible. Lakeview Pharmacy of Racine, Inc. v. Catamaran Corp., 2025 WL 642098 (M.D. Pa. Feb. 27, 2025).
- Landmark precedential opinion enforcing an arbitration agreement’s delegation clause and establishing that prior counsel’s arbitration waiver did not reach newly amended claims. Lackie Drug Store, Inc. v. OptumRx, Inc., 2024 WL 505519 (E.D. Ark. Jan. 30, 2024) (argued), reversed in part, 143 F.4th 985 (8th Cir. 2025).
- After successful appeal establishing client’s right to arbitrability discovery, secured summary judgment that 400+ independent pharmacies must individually arbitrate pricing disputes. Mabe v. OptumRx, 2024 WL 3498353 (M.D. Pa. July 22, 2024).
- Full reversal of trial court ruling denying arbitrability for 48 independent pharmacies’ drug pricing disputes. Copper Bend Pharmacy, Inc. v. OptumRx, 2023 WL 2964485 (Ill. App. Ct. Apr. 14, 2023), pet. for leave to appeal denied, 221 N.E. 3d 374 (Sept. 27, 2023).
- Landmark precedential opinion applying virus exclusion to business interruption insurance coverage under California law. Mudpie, Inc. v. Travelers Cas. Ins. Co. of Am., 15 F.4th 885 (9th Cir. 2021).
- Defeated motion to consolidate insurer-specific MDL on business interruption coverage. In Re: Travelers COVID-19 Business Interruption Protection Insurance Litigation, 492 F. Supp. 3d 1341 (U.S. Jud. Pan. Mult. Lit. 2020).
- Fourteen-for-fourteen success rate securing dismissal of California state and federal actions against Travelers, each applying a virus exclusion to business interruption coverage under California law, often after successful removal from state to federal court, proving fraudulent joinder of state officials and defeating state regulatory violation claims. E.g., JC/SC LLC v. Travelers Indem. Co. of Conn., 2022 WL 263157 (C.D. Cal. Jan. 26, 2022), affirmed, 2023 WL 2945304 (9th Cir. 2023); Pez Seafood DTLA, LLC v. Travelers Indem. Co., 514 F. Supp. 3d 1197 (C.D. Cal. 2021); 10E, LLC v. Travelers Indem. Co. of Conn., 483 F. Supp. 3d 828 (C.D. Cal. 2020).
Katherine also maintains a civil rights and liberties pro bono practice. Namely:
- Argued ineffective assistance of counsel appeal on behalf of death row inmate. Jordaan Creque v. State of Alabama, No. 2023-cr-0654 (Ala. Ct. Crim. App.) (argued Feb. 2025, decision pending).
- Argued hearing, secured five-year early release for prisoner under D.C. Second Look Amendment Act. United States v. Jerome Brown, No. 2002-FEL-6717 (D.C. Sup. Ct. Nov. 20, 2023).
- Secured voting rights amicus brief over Texas Attorney General’s challenge. La Union del Pueblo Entero, et al. v. Gregory W. Abbott, et al., No. 5:21-cv-844 (W.D. Tex. Feb. 14, 2022).
- First chair in bench trial ending foreign parent custody, securing domestic parent custody and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status for unaccompanied minor. Rivas Ortiz v. Rivas de Rodas, No. CAD19-16849 (Md. Cir. Ct. Aug. 27, 2020).
She received her law degree, with honors, from Emory University School of Law. Her peers elected her editor in chief of Emory International Law Review, and the law faculty voted to give her the Robert Beynart Award for Professionalism and Ethics. As a law student, Katherine interned with then-Justice Harold Melton of the Georgia Supreme Court, with civil rights prosecutors at the U.S. Department of Justice, sex trafficking prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, and war crimes prosecutors at the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Prior to law school, Katherine spent a year assisting sex trafficking prosecutors in Kolkata, then earned a Master of Science in Contemporary India from Oxford University. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, magna cum laude, from Auburn University’s Honors College, where she was the Morris W. Savage Pre-Law Scholar from 2006 to 2010. Katherine is the 2020 Auburn University Honored Alumni Award recipient.
Capabilities
Credentials
Education:
- Emory University - 2015 Juris Doctor
- University of Oxford - 2012 Master of Science
- Auburn University - 2010 Bachelor of Arts
Admissions:
- District of Columbia Bar
- Virginia Bar
Clerkships:
- US Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, Hon. Rhesa H. Barksdale, 2016 - 2017
- USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Hon. Claude M. Hilton, 2015 - 2016