Harris M. Mufson

Harris M. Mufson is a litigation partner in the New York office of Gibson Dunn, where he leads the New York employment litigation practice. The American Lawyer Litigation Daily profiled Harris in February 2026 on how he built a destination practice in restrictive covenant litigation, noting that he has handled more employee mobility disputes in recent years than any other lawyer in the country.  Clients call Harris when the stakes are highest.  He is a first-chair trial lawyer who has secured sweeping injunctions in two of the highest-profile restrictive covenant disputes in the United States, and he recently won a complete defense verdict for a client in a week-long jury trial of a high-stakes whistleblower retaliation claim under California law — the jury deliberated for ten minutes. Harris’s practice spans all aspects of employment law, including discrimination and retaliation, whistleblowing, sexual harassment, wrongful discharge, defamation, breach of contract, wage and hour class actions, and the enforcement and defense of non-competes and non-solicits, for clients across technology, financial services, insurance, sports, and media.

Beyond the courtroom, Harris counsels clients on compliance with employment-related laws and on the development, implementation, and enforcement of personnel policies and procedures. He has conducted numerous internal investigations into sensitive employment matters, including allegations involving senior executives.

Harris is ranked for his Labor & Employment work by both Chambers and The Legal 500. Chambers describes him as an “in-demand” employment litigator.  Clients have described him as “excellent”, “sage,” “practical” and a lawyer with “wonderful litigation instincts.”  He has been repeatedly recognized by the Lawdragon 500 Leading Corporate Employment Lawyers guide, which features “the nation’s top advisors to businesses, universities, nonprofits and other organizations dealing with the mind-bending matrix of today’s global workforce,” and was named a BTI Client Service All-Star MVP, recognizing “the attorneys delivering the absolute best levels of client service.”  Harris has also been recognized as a “Labor & Employment Star” by Benchmark Litigation, as a New York Super Lawyer in Employment Litigation and consistently in The Best Lawyers in America.

Recent representative matters include:

• Secured multiple injunctions halting a competitor’s playbook to misappropriate confidential information and solicit clients (Edelman Financial Engines, et al. v. Prime Capital (D. Del. 2026));
• Secured a sweeping injunction stopping a competitor’s tortious interference and unfair competition following its “lift out” of 150 employees (Marsh USA LLC v. Gronovius, et al. (S.D.N.Y. 2026));
• Enjoined former Palantir employees from executing their plan to “pillage” Palantir’s best engineers to build a copycat business, and obtained forensic remediation to address the theft of confidential information (Palantir v. Jain, et al. (S.D.N.Y. 2026));
• Secured a significant victory for the National Basketball Players Association when a federal magistrate judge recommended dismissal of all discrimination claims brought by former NBA player Von Wafer (Wafer v. National Basketball Players Association (N.D. Fla. 2026));
• Secured complete dismissal of a New York wage and hour class action against Amazon.com Services LLC (Bettis, et al. v. Amazon.com Services LLC (E.D.N.Y. 2026));
• Secured an injunction enforcing non-solicitation and confidentiality agreements signed by former senior Marsh employees (Marsh USA LLC v. Parrish, et al. (S.D.N.Y. 2025));
• Secured a sweeping injunction in DraftKings’ trade secret and non-compete suit against the former head of its VIP business (DraftKings Inc. v. Hermalyn (D. Mass. 2024));
• Won a unanimous defense verdict after a week-long jury trial of a whistleblower retaliation claim under California Labor Code § 1102.5 (Fox v. Harry Winston, Inc. (C.D. Cal. 2023));
• Enjoined the Town of East Hampton from closing the historic East Hampton Airport — in continuous public operation for eighty-five years — and reopening it as a purported “private use” airport subject to substantial restrictions on aircraft operators (East End Hangars, Inc., et al. v. Town of East Hampton (Suffolk Cty. Sup. Ct. 2022));
• Defeated a high-profile suit by the New York Attorney General alleging health and safety violations under the New York Labor Law (People v. Amazon.com, Inc. (1st Dep’t 2022));
• Obtained a temporary restraining order barring a former sales executive from competing in violation of his non-competition obligations (Capchase Inc. v. Sukhraj (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2022)); and
• Obtained a temporary restraining order barring a former sports executive from violating his non-competition obligations (Relevent Sports LLC v. Stillitano (S.D.N.Y. 2022)).

Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Harris was a partner in the Labor & Employment Law Department of an AmLaw 50 firm, where he served as co-head of the Whistleblowing & Retaliation Practice Group and the Disability, Accommodation & Leave Management Practice Group.

Harris earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2006, where he was Senior Editor of the Journal of Labor and Employment Law. He earned a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003.

Harris is deeply committed to his pro bono practice and serves as Chairman of the Mount Sinai Medical Legal Partnership, established in 2016 to provide free legal services to low-income patients and to prevent and remedy unjust and hazardous social and environmental conditions. He is also a member of the Penn Carey Law School Board of Advisors and the Board of Trustees of the Allen-Stevenson School.

Capabilities

• Labor and Employment
• Appellate and Constitutional Law
• Class Actions
• Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits
• Family Office
• Law Firm Defense
• Litigation
• Technology Litigation
• Trade Secrets
• Trials

Credentials

Education:

• University of Pennsylvania - 2006 Juris Doctor
• University of Pennsylvania - 2003 Bachelor of Arts

Admissions:

• New York Bar