Julian W. Poon

Julian W. Poon is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Gibson Dunn, co-chair of the firm’s nationwide Appellate and Constitutional Law practice group, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, as well as the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers.

Julian is a seasoned appellate and trial-court advocate who appears regularly before federal and state appellate courts in California, including the Ninth Circuit, the California Supreme Court, and the California Court of Appeal, as well as other state and federal appellate and trial courts around the nation. Since 2012, he has been repeatedly re-appointed by the Chief Justice of California to serve on the Judicial Council’s Advisory Committee on Civil Jury Instructions. 

Chambers, a publication that identifies and ranks the most outstanding lawyers, has ranked Julian for twelve consecutive years, with clients describing him as a “highly analytical,” “extremely professional, [and] highly intelligent appellate practitioner” with “a commanding level of knowledge and experience in the California Court of Appeal,” who “provides great guidance and sound advice as well as insight strategy on how to best position [a] case,” “is relentless in his advocacy,” and an “outstanding writer.” He has also been recognized by BTI Client Service All-Stars as one of a select nationwide group of “attorneys delivering the best client service,” winning praise for his “creativity” and “great” “communication” in “offer[ing] alternative view points.” Best Lawyers in America has recognized Julian for his exceptional work in Appellate Practice. Benchmark Litigation has recognized Julian as a “Litigation Star” since 2015, Lawdragon has recognized him as among the “500 Leading Litigators in America” and “500 Leading Global Litigators,” and Legal 500 US has recognized him in its guide as one of the top appellate litigators in the country.

Julian has also been recognized in the Los Angeles Daily Journal’s annual “Top Verdicts” feature for winning top appellate reversals in 2024, 2021, 2018, 2016, and 2014. Julian’s accomplishments, as featured by the Daily Journal, include winning a precedential decision from the California Court of Appeal vindicating the First Amendment associational rights of an investor-owned utility against a powerful state public utilities regulator; persuading the Ninth Circuit to order entry of judgment against the plaintiff class on their nine-figure, wage-hour class action claims; securing the complete vacatur from the Ninth Circuit of a class action judgment and the decertification of a statewide class in a putative class action involving claims of fraud and unfair competition, after obtaining a 95% reduction from the Central District of California of a nearly half-a-billion-dollar verdict; securing the complete reversal by the California Court of Appeal of an eight-figure summary judgment and attorneys’ fee award, in a cross-border Hong Kong-U.S. dispute; obtaining a unanimous affirmance from the California Supreme Court on behalf of a major law firm in a malicious prosecution case; and persuading the Los Angeles Superior Court, on post-trial motions, to vacate a record-breaking verdict in excess of $178 million in a wrongful death action.

Other matters Julian has handled include:

• Persuading the California Supreme Court to unanimously reverse a Court of Appeal decision limiting the authority of courts to impose monetary sanctions for discovery misconduct, and persuading the Court to hold that the Civil Discovery Act independently authorizes courts to impose monetary sanctions for discovery misconduct and patterns of discovery abuse.
• Securing a Ninth Circuit victory on behalf of an international real-estate developer in a 9-figure venture-capital arbitration dispute.
• Persuading the Los Angeles Superior Court, on post-trial motions, to slash a $30 million punitive damages award by 67% to $10 million in a wrongful termination case on behalf of a major healthcare provider.
• Persuading the Ninth Circuit to overturn the designation of tens of thousands of acres of land as “critical habitat,” in a precedential decision that affects the nature and scope of critical-habitat designations by federal agencies under the Endangered Species Act and that, more generally, reinforces significant administrative-law guardrails against administrative agencies exceeding the authority conferred on them by Congress.
• Persuading the California Supreme Court to grant review of a case concerning the scope and nature of courts’ authority to impose monetary sanctions for discovery abuse.
• Persuading the Los Angeles Superior Court, on post-trial motions, to order an 87% reduction of a nine-figure verdict, following a six-week wrongful-termination jury trial, cutting punitive damages by over $130 million.
• Winning a nine-figure construction-law and attorneys’-fees dispute in the California Court of Appeal.
• Obtaining an eight-figure victory from the California Court of Appeal for a public utility in a dispute with a public transportation agency.
• Persuading the Los Angeles Superior Court and California Court of Appeal to dismiss, on personal jurisdiction grounds, a major indemnification dispute in California and Delaware.
• Winning a precedent-setting decision from the California Court of Appeal concerning appellate cost awards.
• Winning several False Claims Act appeals in the Ninth and Eleventh Circuits involving the for-profit education sector.
• Securing a writ of mandate from the California Court of Appeal in a state-wide wage-and-hour class action involving insurance claims adjusters.
• Obtaining a unanimous reversal from the California Supreme Court enforcing significant constitutional and statutory restrictions in a case involving the taxation of emission reduction credits.
• Persuading the Central District of California to vacate a $14 million false-advertising verdict following a 2-week jury trial, and then persuading the Ninth Circuit to affirm.
• Persuading the Ninth Circuit to reverse summary judgment and vacate an attorneys’-fees award in a breach-of-contract dispute involving a multi-state auto insurance business.
• Winning a decision regarding the statute authorizing U.S. discovery in aid of foreign proceedings (28 U.S.C. § 1782) from the Fifth Circuit, and a string of related victories in the Third, Sixth, and Ninth Circuits.
• Persuading the Ninth Circuit to grant interlocutory review, on the eve of trial, of a class-certification ruling in a major wage-and-hour class action.
• Winning a patent-infringement dispute involving sports equipment in the Federal Circuit.
• Winning a decision on loss causation from the Tenth Circuit.
• Winning a case in the Arkansas Supreme Court regarding the disclosure obligations of corporate officers and directors.
• Defeating a nationwide wage-and-hour class action without any discovery having been taken.
• Defeating a state-wide wage-and-hour class action, again without any discovery.

Prior to joining the firm, Julian served as a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States, and to Judge J. Michael Luttig, formerly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Julian graduated summa cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1999, receiving the Fay Diploma for placing first in his class. He served as a Note Editor of the Harvard Law Review, and was awarded the Sears Prize during each of his first and second years of study for placing at the top of his class. Julian also graduated with distinction and with honors, in Economics and in Public Policy, from Stanford University in 1996, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Julian is admitted to practice before all state and federal courts in California and is also a member of the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, District of Columbia, and Federal Circuits, as well as the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

In addition to his earlier recognitions, Chambers has also recognized Julian as a “Leading Lawyer” in Labor & Employment, and Law360 named him a Class Action “Rising Star.” The Daily Journal recognized him as one of the “Top 20 Under 40” lawyers in California (2008), and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association as a “Best Lawyer Under 40” nationwide (2011). He has consistently been named a “Southern California Super Lawyer” by Law and Politics and Los Angeles magazines since 2014.

Capabilities

• Appellate and Constitutional Law
• Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice
• Class Actions
• Crisis Management
• Energy Regulation and Litigation
• Insurance and Reinsurance
• Litigation

Credentials

Education:

• Harvard University - 1999 Juris Doctor
• Stanford University - 1996 Bachelor of Arts

Admissions:

• California Bar

Clerkships:

• US Supreme Court, Hon. Antonin Scalia, 2000 - 2001
• US Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit, Hon. J. Michael Luttig, 1999 - 2000