Adam J. Garnick is a litigation associate in the New York office of Gibson Dunn. His practice focuses on a broad range of civil litigation in federal and state courts. He represents clients across the media and entertainment, technology, energy, financial services, and healthcare sectors in complex commercial disputes and other business-critical matters.
Adam’s experience spans all stages of litigation, from drafting pleadings and dispositive motions through trial, as well as cross-border disputes and appellate matters, including before the U.S. Supreme Court.
His representative matters include:
- Represented five hospitals in a successful federal trial, obtaining injunctive relief halting a widely used hospital rating system that the court found to be deceptive and lacking a scientific basis.
- Representing a large cryptocurrency company in a cutting-edge federal forfeiture action seeking the recovery of tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency stolen in a major hack.
- Represented a high-profile professional athlete and obtained a favorable settlement in a contract dispute with a sponsor.
- Represented a writer and composer of several off-Broadway shows and obtained a favorable settlement in a contract dispute with the producer.
- Represented a family office in a complex, cross-border fraud dispute, including obtaining key discovery under 28 U.S.C. § 1782 in the Southern District of New York.
- Represented small business owners in a constitutional challenge to a New York state statute, including in emergency litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Adam also maintains an active pro bono practice focused on immigration, First Amendment, and civil rights matters. He has represented clients in asylum and other immigration proceedings, journalists and news media organizations in First Amendment matters, and peaceful protestors in a long-running civil rights lawsuit against the federal government and various local police departments.
Adam served as a law clerk to the Honorable Patty Shwartz of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the Honorable Naomi Reice Buchwald of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Adam earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif, served as an editor on the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and taught first-year legal writing. He was also president of Penn Law Immigrant Rights Project and spent a summer representing asylum seekers in Dilley, Texas.
Prior to law school, Adam taught English to university students in Budapest through the Fulbright Program and served as a Teach For America corps member in Dallas, where he taught U.S. history, coached basketball, and earned a Master of Education from Southern Methodist University. He received his Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania.
Adam is a member of the New York bar and is admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the United States District Courts for the Southern District of New York and Eastern District of New York.
Capabilities
- Litigation
- Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice
- Appellate and Constitutional Law
- Labor and Employment
- Media, Entertainment, and Technology
- Securities Litigation
- Technology Litigation
- Trials
Credentials
Education:
- University of Pennsylvania - 2021 Juris Doctor
- Southern Methodist University - 2017 Master of Education
- University of Pennsylvania - 2015 Bachelor of Arts
Admissions:
- New York Bar
Clerkships:
- USDC, Southern District of New York, Hon. Naomi Reice Buchwald, 2023 - 2024
- US Court of Appeals, 3rd Circuit, Hon. Patty Shwartz, 2022 - 2023