Grace E. Hart

Grace Hart is a partner in Gibson Dunn’s New York office.  She practices in the firm’s Litigation Department and is a member of the Labor & Employment Practice Group.  Grace represents employers in high-stakes employment disputes and advises companies on their most sensitive workplace matters.

Grace has represented clients in a wide range of employment litigation matters, including matters involving discrimination, retaliation, and whistleblower protection laws; restrictive covenants and trade secrets; and wage-and-hour laws.  She has defended employers in single-plaintiff, class, and collective actions, and litigates at both the trial and appellate levels in federal and state courts across the country, as well as before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and other federal and state agencies.

In addition to her litigation practice, Grace regularly advises employers on a broad range of workplace issues, from sensitive personnel decisions to background check compliance and the use of artificial intelligence in employment decisions.  She also leads workplace investigations.

Representative matters include:

• Secured two temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions on behalf of Edelman Financial Engines preventing a competitor from misappropriating confidential information and soliciting clients (Edelman Financial Engines, et al. v. Prime Capital (D. Del. 2026)).
• Won dismissal of a putative wage-and-hour class action filed against Amazon (Bettis, et al. v. Amazon.com Services LLC (E.D.N.Y. 2026)).
• Defeated the New York Attorney General’s high-profile COVID-19 workplace safety and whistleblower-retaliation lawsuit against Amazon (People of the State of New York v. Amazon.com Services LLC (N.Y. App. Div. 2022)).
• Won motion to dismiss race discrimination and COVID-19 workplace safety class action (Smalls v. Amazon.com Services LLC (2d Cir. 2022)).
• Represented Guardant Health and its founders in a high-stakes patent inventorship, trade secret, and breach of contract lawsuit filed by Illumina; secured an order dramatically narrowing the case and ultimately achieved a favorable settlement (Illumina, Inc. v. Guardant Health, Inc. (D. Del. 2022)).
• Secured a favorable settlement for Modern Health in a founder’s dispute litigation involving claims of wrongful termination, retaliation, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and defamation.
• Obtained dismissal of lawsuit filed against a religious school on First Amendment ministerial-exception grounds, and secured affirmance in the New Jersey Appellate Division and the New Jersey Supreme Court (Hyman v. Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey (N.J. 2024)).

Prior to joining the firm, Grace served as a law clerk for the Honorable Robert D. Sack of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Honorable Carol B. Amon of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Grace received her Juris Doctor in 2016 from Yale Law School, where she served as a Notes Editor of the Yale Law Journal and received the Thomas I. Emerson Prize for a distinguished paper on a subject related to legislation. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 2013, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Grace maintains an active pro bono practice.  Her recent work includes immigration appeals before the Second and Ninth Circuits and amicus briefs in courts nationwide, including the U.S. Supreme Court.  She also provides pro bono employment counsel to non-profit organizations.

Grace is admitted to practice in the State of New York, the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits.

Capabilities

• Labor and Employment
• Appellate and Constitutional Law
• Class Actions
• Litigation
• Media, Entertainment, and Technology

Credentials

Education:

• Yale University - 2016 Juris Doctor
• Dartmouth College - 2013 Bachelor of Arts

Admissions:

• New York Bar

Clerkships:

• US Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit, Hon. Robert D. Sack, 2017 - 2018
• USDC, Eastern District of New York, Hon. Carol Bagley Amon, 2016 - 2017