Elizabeth Papez, a former Justice Department official, is a litigation and regulatory partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

Ms. Papez is a seasoned litigator and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General with substantial experience navigating complex government investigations and related litigation.  Her practice focuses principally on high-stakes antitrust, securities, and consumer protection matters with parallel civil regulatory and litigation exposure.

Ms. Papez has handled recent enforcement proceedings in competition and consumer protection matters before the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).  The majority of these proceedings involved public company compliance and business practices concerning investor or consumer disclosures, pricing, and data sharing under the Sherman and Clayton Acts, Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA), Securities and Exchange Act, Lanham Act, False Claims Act (FCA), and various state unfair and deceptive trade practices statutes.

Ms. Papez has particular expertise handling investigations and litigation raising procedural (jurisdictional and administrative law) issues as well as market structure and investor/consumer impact defenses.  In leading such matters Ms. Papez has worked extensively with compliance, sales, and trading personnel, IP and product development divisions, third party data providers, economists, and regulators on consumer disclosure, data privacy, pricing, and information-sharing attendant to a wide variety of electronic platforms and online transactions.  Ms. Papez has particular experience with competitive considerations involving concentrated markets and the application of federal competition and consumer protection laws to two-sided commercial platforms, gig economy partnerships, and multi-jurisdictional discovery and data-sharing considerations including industry standard-setting practices.

Ms. Papez has been repeatedly recognized as one of Benchmark USA’s Top 250 Women in Litigation nationwide, which named her a “client favorite” who is “extremely smart and practical and very charismatic,” and is praised by peers as a “fierce, dynamic, bright, powerhouse of a litigator.”  Ms. Papez is also recognized in The Legal 500  for her antitrust and appellate work, and is honored in The Best Lawyers in America since 2019 for her appellate practice.

Representative Matters– Regulatory Investigations and Enforcement

• Representing client in FTC and CFPB enforcement actions concerning online consumer disclosure and marketing practices; leading offensive discovery including depositions of agency Rule 30(b)(6) and remedy witnesses
• Representing client in DOJ investigation and related civil litigation requests for customer data and transactional records implicating GDPR and various cross-border jurisdictional, bank secrecy, and data privacy issues
• Representing client in confidential CFPB investigation regarding consumer disclosure practices and related impact and remediation issues, including expert data, survey, and compliance issues related to CMP demand
• Represented client in successful investigation response and multi-agency presentation to DOJ, SEC, CFTC, and Treasury Department involving antitrust and fraud challenges to sharing of customer data; developed and delivered market structure defenses; prepared internal witnesses; negotiated discovery protocols and tolling agreements
• Represented client in successful defense of DOJ fraud, antitrust, and related state regulatory challenges to information sharing and consumer contracting practices and related Congressional investigation
• Represented clients in multi-agency investigations of allegedly fraudulent and discriminatory data mining, marketing, and disclosure practices; negotiated cooperating witness testimony and document productions

Representative Matters – Class and Complex Commercial Actions

• FTC v. LendingClub Corp. (NDCA 2019) – leading FTC and related bank regulatory discovery and defenses of FTCA Section 5 claims against online marketing and disclosure practices of fintech lender
• Philip Morris Capital Corp. v. Amtrak (SDNY 2019) – leading challenge to breach of leverage lease agreement and related contractual commitments on international transportation sector deal
• Caterpillar Inc. v. Deere and Co. et al. (MDTN 2019) – lead counsel in 28 U.S.C. § 1782 action for discovery in aid of foreign proceedings in global intellectual property and competition disputes
• US Bank National Association v. Bank of America, NA (2d Cir. 2019) – lead appellate counsel for national bank in jurisdictional appeal involving securitized CMBS portfolio
• Washington County Hosp., et al. v. Baxter International, et al. (NDIL 2019) – lead counsel for pharmaceutical company in consolidated nationwide antitrust class actions
• In re LIBOR Antitrust Litigation (SDNY 2019) – lead counsel for global financial institution and affiliates in U.S. discovery disputes concerning multi-jurisdictional discovery and settlement approval
• B&R Supermarket et al. v. Visa, Inc. et al. (NDCA/EDNY 2018) – lead counsel for credit card network in nationwide class action alleging antitrust violations in chip card rollout
• In re Treasury Securities Auction Antitrust Litigation (SDNY 2018) – counsel for global dealer bank in MDL involving alleged antitrust violations in the market for U.S. Treasury securities
• Tirado et al. v. Bank of America, NA et al. (NDIL 2018) – lead counsel for national bank in class action alleging violations of federal housing regulations
• In re Interest Rates Swaps Antitrust Litigation (SDNY 2018) – counsel for global financial institution in MDL of nationwide antitrust class actions involving U.S. interest rate swaps
• Tera Exchange et al. v. Bank of America et al. (SDNY 2017) – counsel for global financial institution in antitrust action alleging collusion in the market for CFTC-regulated CDS trading
• In re Credit Default Swaps Antitrust Litigation (SDNY 2016) – counsel for global financial institution in multi-billion dollar MDL alleging antitrust violations in the global CDS market
• IVI-IPO v Widawsky, Comptroller (2015-2016) – lead counsel for private concessionaire in successful defense of taxpayer constitutional challenges to public-private partnership

Representative Matters – Appeals

• Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Research Ass’n, Inc. v. FDA (D.C. Cir. 2019) – lead appellate counsel for pharmaceutical manufacturer in APA appeal concerning new drug application
• US Bank National Association v. Bank of America, NA (2d Cir. 2019) – lead appellate counsel for national bank in jurisdictional appeal involving securitized CMBS portfolio
• In re Containerboard Antitrust Litigation (7th Cir. 2018) – lead appellate counsel in successful defense of summary judgment win in $11 billion MDL of several antitrust class actions
• United States v. American Express Co., et al. (2nd Cir. 2017) – lead appellate counsel for credit card network in support of U.S. Department of Justice enforcement action
• US ex rel. Oliver v. Philip Morris USA (DC Cir. 2016) – lead appellate counsel for national consumer products company in successful defense of multi-billion dollar qui tam action
• Ross et al. v. Bank of America et al. (2d Cir. 2015) – lead appellate counsel for credit card network in successful appellate defense of five-week trial verdict in nationwide antitrust MDL

Ms. Papez has been honored for her advisory work with corporate general counsel, and regularly speaks before Congress and professional organizations on legal developments relevant to her practice.  In 2020 Ms. Papez was appointed as a public member of the Administrative Council of the United States (ACUS).  She is a Trustee of the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society, a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Committee on Administrative Law & Regulation and Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, a board member of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, and the recipient of an award from the Innocence Project for her pro bono defense work.

Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Ms. Papez served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice in the Office of Legal Counsel, Co-Chair of the Financial Services Litigation Practice at Winston & Strawn LLP, and as a commercial litigation partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

Ms. Papez clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge Danny Boggs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and received her law degree from Harvard Law School, where she was the Supreme Court Chair and Notes Editor of the Harvard Law Review.