Michael Dore is a litigation partner in the Los Angeles office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  He is a former federal prosecutor with extensive experience in high-stakes criminal and civil matters across a broad range of practice areas.  Mr. Dore is a member of the Firm’s Media, Entertainment and Technology practice group, as well as its Law Firm Defense and White Collar Defense and Investigations practice groups.

Mr. Dore has first-chaired trials and argued appeals on a wide array of issues.  He also regularly represents entities and individuals in connection with federal and state grand jury investigations and prosecutions.  Mr. Dore’s significant investigations experience includes internal investigations and externally focused investigations in litigation matters.  He has uncovered fraudulent conduct by opposing parties in several recent matters that helped end the civil matters and became the subject of federal criminal investigations.

Mr. Dore’s substantive areas of expertise include defamation, anti-SLAPP laws, securities and accounting fraud, RICO, and issues related to NFTs and cryptocurrency.  Additionally, Mr. Dore counsels a variety of clients on privacy and data breach issues, including business email compromise attacks.  Examples of recent and ongoing representations include:  

• Facebook:  Mr. Dore represents Facebook in matters related to the misuse of its data by Cambridge Analytica.
• University of Southern California:  Mr. Dore represents USC in matters related to the federal government’s Operation Varsity Blues prosecutions charging dozens of individuals with crimes connected to college admissions.
• Ashley Judd:  Mr. Dore represents Ashley Judd in her lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein for the harm he did to Ms. Judd’s career by defaming her to filmmakers in retaliation for Ms. Judd having rejected his advances. 
• The McClatchy Company:  Mr. Dore represented newspaper publisher McClatchy in its defense of a defamation claim brought by Congressman Devin Nunes based on an article published in The Fresno Bee.
• Worldwide Pants, Inc.:  Mr. Dore successfully briefed and argued a motion for summary judgment on behalf of David Letterman’s production company in its defense of a federal suit over international royalties.
• Television Studio:  Mr. Dore defended a major television studio against profit participation claims related to streaming revenues.

From 2010 to 2015, Mr. Dore served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.  A member of the Violent and Organized Crime section, Mr. Dore investigated and prosecuted a wide range of federal crimes, including RICO, money laundering, extortion, wire fraud, mail fraud, tax fraud, and crimes against children.  He successfully tried several complex multi-defendant cases against the leader of a foreign organized crime syndicate, members of the Mexican Mafia, and other organized crime figures responsible for murders, attempts to kill law enforcement, and money laundering across five continents.

Prior to joining the United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, Mr. Dore spent seven years litigating matters at Gibson Dunn.  During that period, he specialized in media and entertainment matters that included litigating profit participation claims and helping news organizations and journalists to access court proceedings and protect source information.

Mr. Dore has been published in multiple journals, including the Virginia Law Review, the Marquette Law Review, and the Columbia Science & Technology Law Review, with both trial and appellate courts citing his works.  He is a Board member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and a member of the Privacy Law Legislative Committee of the California Lawyers Association.  Mr. Dore also is a member of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art’s Emerging Art Fund.  Most recently, he has also been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America® 2023 publication in the category of White-Collar Criminal Defense.

Mr. Dore received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Amherst College, where he graduated magna cum laude.  He received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was a member of the Virginia Law Review.