Katie Marquart

Katie Marquart is a partner in Gibson Dunn’s Los Angeles office and is the Firm’s Pro Bono Chair.  In this role, Ms. Marquart manages and coordinates the Firm’s pro bono efforts globally, which have totaled more than 2.2 million hours valued at more than $2 billion under her leadership.  She also maintains an active practice in areas including criminal justice, civil rights, constitutional law, and immigration.  Ms. Marquart previously spent seven years as a litigation associate at the Firm, where her practice focused on complex business litigation, transnational litigation, and internal investigations and regulatory inquiries.

Since taking the helm of Gibson Dunn’s pro bono practice in 2013, Ms. Marquart has played an integral role in many of the Firm’s most significant pro bono engagements.  In addition to personally representing clients in a variety of litigation matters—including lawsuits focused on civil rights, immigration, and the First Amendment—Ms. Marquart has led the Firm’s efforts to respond to some of the most pressing issues of the day.  As Pro Bono Chair, she liaises with corporate clients and nonprofit community partners to collaborate on pro bono matters, including facilitating and overseeing numerous partnerships in the areas of criminal justice, racial justice, and immigration, among other sectors of public interest law.  In 2024, Ms. Marquart also spearheaded the Firm's Justice for Women and Girls initiative, a firmwide effort to advance equality and equity for women and girls in communities around the world.

Recent representative matters include:

• Abuse of Material Witness Statutes:  Representing a young woman who was wrongfully incarcerated under Louisiana’s material witness statute—despite being accused of no wrongdoing and agreeing to testify voluntarily regarding the crime she witnessed—in lawsuit arguing prosecutors violated her Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
• Jones v. City of Los Angeles:  Co-lead counsel in Deon Jones v. City of Los Angeles (C.D. Cal.), a historic civil rights victory over an LAPD officer who shot Mr. Jones in the face while he was peacefully protesting in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder.  After a 7-day trial, a federal jury determined that the officer had violated Mr. Jones’ Fourth Amendment rights and awarded Mr. Jones $375,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.  The City of Los Angeles ultimately settled Mr. Jones’ civil rights claims for $860,000.
• U.S. Dep’t of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California:  Successfully represented “Dreamers” in litigation challenging the government’s rescission of the DACA program, resulting in the Supreme Court decision holding that DHS’s decision to terminate DACA is subject to judicial review and violated the Administrative Procedures Act.
• Ramirez-Medina v. U.S. Dep’t of Homeland Security (9th Cir.): Represented “Dreamer” in appeal challenging the denial of his DACA renewal application and secured a preliminary injunction requiring the government to maintain his DACA status.
• Buchanan v. Trump (D.D.C.): Represented three peaceful protesters, two educators and a nonprofit director, who were attacked without warning by law enforcement during a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Lafayette Park on June 1, 2020. After the court sustained the plaintiffs' First Amendment claims and rejected the government's motions to dismiss, secured a partial settlement in which the U.S. Park Police and U.S. Secret Service agreed to significant demonstration policing reforms, including limits on revoking demonstration permits, required audible dispersal warnings, safe withdrawal for demonstrators, visible officer identification, and prohibitions on discriminatory policing. IRAP v. Kelly: Represented an Afghan family of five wrongfully detained and separated by Customs and Border Patrol in the wake of the 2017 Travel Ban, leading to the family’s admission as lawful permanent residents of the United States.
• COVID-19 Response: Supervising and coordinating global pro bono efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout, including the Firm’s efforts to assist small businesses in navigating PPP/EIDL loans; leasing, contract, and employment issues; and corporate governance and bankruptcy matters.  Also spearheading efforts to represent medically at-risk immigrants in detention facilities across the country who are seeking to be released due to the increased risk inherent in the detention facilities during the pandemic.
• Police Reform Task Force: Launched a new Police Reform Task Force, which builds on previous Firm efforts to identify best practices to reform policing and is now reexamining a variety of critical issues, including dismissal policies, police unions, transparency, and excessive militarization of police.
• Family Reunification Efforts: Managed and supervised the Firm’s response to the U.S. family separation crisis, including representation of parents detained in Texas and separated from their children, assisting with a nationwide project to locate the parents of nearly 300 “lost” children, working with formerly separated families seeking asylum, and filing Federal Tort Claims Act claims on behalf of more than 20 formerly separated families seeking damages.
• Travel Ban Response: Spearheaded an effort to deploy Gibson Dunn attorneys to airports around the U.S. to monitor incoming flights, observe the activities of relevant officials and government agencies, and work with legal partners to provide meaningful pro bono assistance to those in need—including working with corporate clients whose employees were directly impacted by the 2017 Travel Ban.

In 2024, Ms. Marquart received Human Rights First’s Marvin E. Frankel Award for Pro Bono Service, in recognition of her leadership in advocating for Afghan refugees in the United States.  She was also named a Daily Journal CLAY (California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year) Award honoree, as part of the Gibson Dunn team recognized for a first-of-its-kind jury verdict in the civil rights case Deon Jones v. City of Los Angeles.  She has since been selected to receive Sanctuary for Families' 2026 Abely Pro Bono Award.

Under Ms. Marquart’s leadership, Gibson Dunn is consistently recognized for its outstanding commitment to pro bono and significant pro bono victories.  For the fourth consecutive year, Gibson Dunn has placed in the top 10 of AmLaw’s 2026 National and International Pro Bono Rankings. Among other accolades, the Firm is a repeat recipient of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association Beacon of Justice Award, most recently in 2026, and has received the 2026 John H. Pickering Award from the Pro Bono Institute, the 2026 Sanctuary for Families Above & Beyond Pro Bono Achievement Award, the 2026 ABA Death Penalty Representation Project's Exceptional Service Award, TrustLaw’s 2026 International Lawyer of the Year Award, the 2025 Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland Law Firm Pro Bono Service Award, the 2025 National Women’s Law Center Pro Bono Honor Roll, the 2025 Amica Center for Immigrant Rights Defender of Due Process Award, the 2025 Legal Aid Society Pro Bono Publico Award, the 2023 Kids in Need of Defense Pro Bono Attorneys of the Year Award, the 2023 Sanctuary for Families Above & Beyond Pro Bono Achievement Award, the 2022 TrustLaw Powered by Pro Bono Award, the 2021 Giffords Law Center Pro Bono Partner Award, the 2021 Neighborhood Defender Service Corporate Social Responsibility Award, the 2020 Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs Outstanding Achievement Award, the 2019 Legal Aid Society Pro Bono Publico Award, the 2018 Who’s Who Legal Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year Award, the 2018 Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition Impacting Justice Award, the 2017 Public Counsel Law Firm Pro Bono Award, and the 2017 Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network Pro Bono Service Award.

In 2010, Ms. Marquart was honored with Gibson Dunn’s Frank Wheat Award for her pro bono work on behalf of children with autism living in the East Los Angeles area.  In that matter, she spearheaded a class action lawsuit that resulted in over 2,000 children diagnosed with autism getting their state-funded treatment programs reinstated on a permanent and ongoing basis, after those services had been wrongfully terminated.  Ms. Marquart also received Public Counsel Law Center’s Volunteer of the Year Award in connection with the same case.

Ms. Marquart is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and the States of California and New York.

Capabilities

• ESG: Risk, Litigation, and Reporting
• Trials

Credentials

Education:

• Georgetown University - 2006 Juris Doctor
• University of California, Los Angeles - 2003 Bachelor of Arts

Admissions:

• California Bar
• District of Columbia Bar
• New York Bar