Megan B. Kiernan is an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. She practices in the firm’s Litigation Department and is a member of its Litigation, Appellate and Constitutional Law, White Collar Defense, Congressional Investigations, and Crisis Management Practice Groups.

Ms. Kiernan represents clients in investigations as well as in civil and criminal litigation. Her investigations practice includes enforcement actions, internal investigations, and House and Senate inquiries. Additionally, Ms. Kiernan has significant litigation experience and has briefed cases before federal district and appellate courts and represented clients in proceedings before administrative agencies. She has helped secure significant victories for clients, including a favorable verdict in a jury trial and a reversal of convictions in a criminal appeal. Ms. Kiernan also advises clients on crisis management. She has played key roles in responding to inquiries in high-profile matters involving significant media and political scrutiny—using her investigations and litigation experience to help clients navigate potential liability.

Ms. Kiernan maintains an active pro bono practice, representing both parties and amici curiae in judicial and administrative proceedings, with a focus on criminal sentencing and immigration.

Before joining the firm, Ms. Kiernan clerked for the Honorable Karen Nelson Moore of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the Honorable Joan Humphrey Lefkow of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She received her law degree, magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, from Northwestern University Law School. She was a Senior Articles Editor for the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, and argued a criminal appeal before the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit through the law school’s Federal Appellate Clinic. Prior to attending law school, she received her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, summa cum laude.

Ms. Kiernan is the co-author of Avoiding Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Relitigation of Class Certification and the Realities of the Modern Class Action, 99 Iowa L. Rev. 1659 (2014), with Martin H. Redish.

Ms. Kiernan is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and the State of California.