Blaine H. Evanson is a litigation partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where his practice focuses on complex commercial litigation both in the trial court and on appeal. He is a member of the firm’s Appellate and Constitutional Law, Class Actions, and Intellectual Property practice groups.

Mr. Evanson has represented clients in a wide variety of appellate matters in the Supreme Court of the United States and federal and state appellate courts around the country. He has briefed several dozen appeals in almost every federal court of appeals and many state appellate courts, and he has argued several appeals in the Ninth Circuit and California’s Courts of Appeal. In the trial court, Mr. Evanson has broad commercial litigation experience, particularly with complex motion practice and providing strategic advice to trial counsel preparing for appeal.

In 2018, Law360 named Mr. Evanson one of five national “Rising Stars” under 40 in the area of appellate litigation, and Euromoney named him the 2018 “Best in Litigation: Appellate” among its Americas Rising Stars.  He has been included in the appellate practice section of The Best Lawyers in America since 2013; Benchmark Litigation has for several years included him on its “40 & Under Hot List”; and Super Lawyers named him a 2020 Southern California Super Lawyer. Mr. Evanson is also a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers.

Recent representative matters include:

• Persuading the Supreme Court to grant certiorari and then reverse an award of non-taxable expenses on behalf of a software support provider in a complex copyright infringement action.
• Representing film studios before the Supreme Court in a case involving the application of the laches defense to copyright infringement.
• Obtaining a new trial on damages and then reversal from the Federal Circuit on the eligibility of patent claims under Section 101, in a case where a jury had awarded $533 million for patent infringement, and successfully opposing certiorari.
• Convincing the Third Circuit to reverse a $36 million judgment against an insurer based on the district court’s erroneous interpretation of an asbestos exclusion.
• Obtaining summary judgment in a complex copyright infringement action involving computer software and allegations of intentional interference.
• Obtaining reversal from the Federal Circuit of a multi-million-dollar contempt sanction against a software company alleged to have infringed a competitor’s patents, and successfully opposing certiorari.
• Obtaining reversal from the Federal Circuit on the ineligibility of patents directed to a secure transaction system for untrusted computer networks, and successfully opposing certiorari.
• Convincing the Ninth Circuit to affirm the dismissal of a complaint against an international bank for lack of personal jurisdiction.
• Successfully defending before the Federal Circuit a district court decision holding the asserted patent claims ineligible under Section 101.
• Obtaining reversal by the Fifth Circuit of an order denying a motion to compel arbitration, and interlocutory review and vacatur of an order certifying a nationwide ERISA class action.
• Convincing the Ninth Circuit to affirm the denial of class certification and grant of summary judgment in favor of an automobile manufacturer in a product defect class action.
• Obtaining reversal from the California Court of Appeal of a significant punitive damages award and a dramatic reduction in compensatory damages following a jury trial in a product liability suit, and successfully opposing review by the California Supreme Court.
• Obtaining reversal from the Federal Circuit of a district court decision dismissing a complaint involving California’s unfair competition law, obtaining affirmance of summary judgment in a subsequent appeal, and successfully opposing certiorari.
• Successfully defending before the Tenth Circuit dismissal of two securities class actions.

Before joining the firm, Mr. Evanson served as a law clerk for Judge A. Raymond Randolph of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He graduated from Columbia Law School, where he was a James Kent Scholar and a Senior Editor on the Columbia Law Review. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems from Brigham Young University.

Mr. Evanson has taught advanced constitutional law seminars at the University of Southern California and University of California, Irvine Law Schools, and has lectured and written on a wide variety of subjects (sample list below), including the Supreme Court, class actions, arbitration, copyright law, patent law, punitive damages, appellate procedure, and constitutional law. Mr. Evanson serves on the board of directors of Community Legal Aid SoCal, and previously served as the Chair for the appellate section of the Orange County Bar Association. He oversees the pro bono efforts of the firm’s Orange County office, and maintains an active pro bono practice himself, representing clients in cases involving religious liberty, immigration, voting rights, and domestic violence.

Mr. Evanson is a member of the California bar, and is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States; the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, Federal, and D.C. Circuits; and the United States District Courts for the Northern, Central, and Eastern Districts of California.