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 “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 named Mr. Evanson to its national “Under 40 Hot List” since 2016; and he has for several years been listed as one of the “up-and-coming 100 rising stars” in Southern California by the “Superlawyers” edition of Los Angeles magazine.

Recent representative matters include:

• Persuading the Supreme Court to reverse the certification of the largest employment class action in American history.
• 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 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.
• Persuading the Ninth Circuit to reverse a grant of summary judgment and vacate an award of attorney’s fees in a breach-of-contract dispute over the sale of a multi-state auto insurance business.
• Obtaining a unanimous reversal from the California Supreme Court enforcing significant constitutional and statutory restrictions on the taxation of intangible assets and rights.

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 California, Irvine and University of Southern California Law Schools, and has lectured and written on a wide variety of subjects (sample list below), including the Supreme Court, class actions, patent law, copyright law, arbitration, punitive damages, appellate procedure, and constitutional law.  Mr. Evanson serves as the programs chair for the appellate section of the Orange County Bar Association.  He also serves on the board of directors of the Orange County Legal Aid Society, and maintains an active pro bono practice, 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 and Central Districts of California.