Jennifer H. Rearden, a partner resident in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s New York office, is a member of Gibson Dunn’s Litigation and Crisis Management Practice Groups and Co-Chair of Gibson Dunn’s Electronic Discovery and Information Law Practice Group.  She also serves on Gibson Dunn’s Partnership Evaluation and Compensation Committees.

Ms. Rearden represents clients in complex commercial litigation, including major fraud and contract cases, large sales tax matters, hostile M&A, and disputes with states and municipalities, as well as internal investigations.  She has tried cases and argued before multiple federal and state courts and administrative bodies.  Ms. Rearden’s practice also frequently includes assisting clients in responding to high-profile events and evaluating legal risk, and counseling clients regarding crisis management planning and effective crisis response.  Significant matters include representation of Lynn Tilton and Patriarch Partners in extensive proceedings in Delaware Chancery Court and in a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York seeking to enjoin U.S. Bank, as indenture trustee, from selling the collateral of a distressed debt CLO fund on commercially unreasonable terms; of Verizon in a decade-long action against Consolidated Edison and the City of New York relating to the 2007 man-hole explosion on Manhattan’s East 41^st Street; and of Cablevision, Madison Square Garden, and several community groups in trial-level and appellate litigation challenging and ultimately defeating New York City’s sweeping proposal to build a stadium for the New York Jets on Manhattan’s West Side.

Ms. Rearden received her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law, where she was a member of the Journal of International Law and Politics.  She graduated magna cum laude from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History.  A longtime member of the board of the Yale Club of New York City, Ms. Rearden now serves on a subcommittee of the Yale Club board and on the board of Copland House.  She has also served on the boards of Inwood House and the NYU Law Alumni Association.

Ms. Rearden was the original author in 2008 of “Subprime-Related Securities Class Actions and Derivative Suits,” a chapter in Practising Law Institute’s treatise, Securities Litigation:  A Practitioner’s Guide, and its successor, “Credit Crisis Securities Litigation and Enforcement,” and now authors “Automatic Stay of Discovery Under the PSLRA.”  She frequently publishes and speaks on securities litigation, discovery, and other subjects.  Ms. Rearden is a member of the bars of the States of New York, Connecticut, and Georgia, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the Northern District of Georgia.  She is also a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Other significant matters include:

• National Association of Securities Dealers (“NASD”) (now the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority):  Successful defense of putative class actions relating to the consolidation of NASD’s member regulatory functions with those of NYSE Regulation, Inc.
• Home Depot:  Representation of Home Depot in a series of administrative, trial-level and appellate matters (including a trial in Connecticut) in states across the country where Home Depot was denied refunds of sales tax payments on private label credit card transactions in which the customers ultimately defaulted.  These matters are ongoing.
• Verizon:  Successful motion to dismiss more than a dozen causes of action against Verizon, sounding primarily in fraud, misrepresentation, breach of contract and quasi-contract, in a major real estate dispute (affirmed on appeal).
• GE Capital Corporation (“GECC”) and GE Capital Aviation Services (“GECAS”):  Representation of GECC and GECAS against claims for fraud, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and negligence in New York State Supreme Court, Commercial Division, by a former GECAS client for which the company had serviced aircraft leases.
• Barclays:  Representation of Lehman Brothers, and subsequently Barclays, in connection with the Chapter 11 proceedings of Asarco, LLC, including in a trial relating to Barclays’ fees.
• Philip Morris USA:  Successful challenge, on federal preemption grounds, of a New York City regulation requiring tobacco retailers to post anti-smoking signs at the point of sale (affirmed on appeal).
• Hudson River Park Trust:  Successful motion to dismiss Chelsea Piers, L.P.’s lawsuit against the Hudson River Park Trust, a public benefit corporation, which sought to shift the ultimate burden of commercial pier repairs to New York State, or to include Chelsea Piers in the Trust’s plan to redevelop certain piers as a public park (affirmed on appeal).
• New York Skyline, Inc.:  Successful appeal for New York Skyline, Inc., a vendor of a virtual tour of New York City, obtaining a unanimous reversal of a ruling of the New York State Supreme Court that threatened to put Skyline out of business.  Gibson Dunn convinced the Appellate Division, First Department, to overturn the trial court’s ruling that general vendor licenses (which are most difficult and time-consuming to obtain) were required for sidewalk ticket sales.
• HLP Properties:  Successful litigation against the New York Department of Environmental Conservation with respect to its denial of Edison’s application to participate in the Brownfield Cleanup Program (which provides for the clean-up and redevelopment of underutilized contaminated properties, including liability relief and tax credits) (affirmed on appeal).
• Maxwell Shoe Company, Inc.:  Representation of Maxwell Shoe in connection with its defense of an unsolicited merger proposal from Jones Apparel Group.
• Atlantic Coast Airlines Holdings, Inc.:  Representation of Atlantic Coast in its successful effort to defend against a hostile takeover attempt by Mesa Air Group.
• ArvinMeritor:  Representation of ArvinMeritor in its attempted takeover of Dana Corporation.

Selected Recent Publications

• “Chancery Court Rejects Demand Futility in Absence of Particularized Allegations,” Delaware Business Court Insider, June 13, 2018
• “Del. Supreme Court Clarifies, Applies Choice of Law to Multistate Disputes,” Delaware Business Court Insider, May 16, 2017
• “Trends Under Amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 37 and 26,” Bloomberg BNA’s Digital Discovery & e-Evidence, September 15, 2016
• “Advice From Law Firm’s In-House Counsel Found Shielded by Privilege,” New York Law Journal, September 1, 2016
• “Further Guidance on Advancing Litigation Costs to Officers, Directors,” Delaware Business Court Insider, May 25, 2016
• “Spoliation Standards Under The New Rule 37(e),” Law360, October 28, 2015
• “Practical Considerations In Using Predictive Coding,” New York Law Journal, October 5, 2015
• “Stockholder Ratification of Compensation for Non-employee Directors,” Delaware Business Court Insider, May 20, 2015
• “How Litigants Should Approach Categorical Privilege Logs,” New York Commercial Litigation Insider (front page), September 22, 2014
• “Nonparty Depositions: From ‘Potted Plant’ Rule to Venus Fly Traps,” New York Commercial Litigation Insider, September 8, 2014
• “2014 Mid-Year eDiscovery Update:  Is This the ‘Year of Technology’ in eDiscovery?” Bloomberg BNA’s Digital Discovery & e-Evidence, July 29, 2014
• “Litigation Legal Holds and ‘Bring Your Own Device,'” Bloomberg BNA’s Digital Discovery & e-Evidence, April 10, 2014
• “Chancery Continues Fight to Remain Leader in Business Dispute Resolution,” Delaware Business Court Insider, February 19, 2014
• “Chancery Court in Brookstone Underscores Privacy of Comity and Efficiency,” Delaware Business Court Insider, December 27, 2012
• “Growing Trend Favors Disclosure of Witnesses’ Identities,” ABA Securities Litigation Newsletter, Fall 2012
• “Non-Party . . . Party? When It Comes to Deleted ESI, Is There a Difference Anymore?” Bloomberg BNA’s Digital Discovery and e-Evidence, April 26, 2012
• “Standing in Mortgage-Backed Securities Class Action Litigation,” ABA Securities Litigation Newsletter, Summer 2011
• “How (Not) to Lose Data and Alienate Judges,” Law Technology News, April 20, 2011
• “Scheindlin’s ‘Day Laborer’ Decision: Much Ado About Metadata,” Law Technology News, February 22, 2011
• “Oh No, Ephemeral Data!,” New York Law Journal, March 22, 2010
• “If The Sedona Conference Builds It, Will They Cooperate?  Year in Review,” New York Law Journal, October 27, 2009
• “Judge Issues a ‘Wake-Up Call’ to New York Lawyers:  When It Comes to Search Terms, Play Nice and Plan Ahead,” Bloomberg:  New York Law, May 4, 2009
• “Trends in Subprime-Related Securities Fraud Actions,” Law360, October 31, 2008

Recent Speaking Engagements

• Moderator, “Text, Lies & Social Media,” Regional Meeting of CGOC (the Compliance Governance and Oversight Council), May 1, 2018
• Speaker, “Evolving Standards on Spoliation of Electronically Stored Information and Proportionality,” Clear Law Institute, July 25, 2017
• Speaker, “Identifying New Challenges in Mobile Device Discovery:  What Lies Ahead?” The Knowledge Group, April 26, 2017
• Moderator, “EDiscovery – Update from the Trenches,” Regional Meeting of CGOC (the Compliance Governance and Oversight Council), March 9, 2017
• Speaker, “Everything You Don’t Know About E-Discovery (But Wish You Did),” National Business Institute, November 9, 2016
• Speaker, “Recent Amendments to the New York CPLR and Uniform Commercial Division Court Rules,” Lawline, July 29, 2016
• Speaker, “The New Federal Rules of Civil Procedure – What You Need to Know Now,” National Business Institute, June 30, 2016
• Speaker, “BYOD in eDiscovery: Managing Risks and Ensuring Best Practices in 2016,” The Knowledge Group, June 7, 2016
• Speaker, “December 2015 Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: Key Components and Recent Case Law,” Clear Law Institute, April 29, 2016
• Moderator, Mock Hearing – Motion to Compel, Conference of CGOC (the Compliance Governance and Oversight Council) on Privacy, Security & Compliance: A Global Framework for Information Governance, March 23, 2016
• Speaker, “December 2015 Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,” Lawline, March 10, 2016
• Speaker, “Proportionality in Discovery Under the New Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,” National Business Institute, February 29, 2016
• Speaker, “E-Discovery Issues in Trust and Investment Management Litigation,” American Bankers Association Wealth Management & Trust Conference, May 1, 2015
• Speaker, “Legal Considerations for Defensible Disposal:  What Have the Courts Said?” Conference of CGOC (the Compliance Governance and Oversight Council) on the Impact of Emerging Technologies and Regulations on Information Governance, March 11, 2015
• Speaker, “Information Governance in a Big Data World,” Georgetown Advanced eDiscovery Institute, November 21, 2014
• Speaker, “Bring Your Own Device: Policies in a Litigious Environment,” New York Law Journal seminar, May 13, 2014
• Speaker, “Developments (and Sometimes Disasters) in High-Tech E-Discovery: Risks, Consequences and Better (or Worse) Practices,” Legal Malpractice & Risk Management Conference, March 6, 2014
• Speaker, “The Global Embrace: Security & Strategy in Cross-Border eDiscovery,” Thomson Reuters, 17th Annual eDiscovery & Information Governance Forum, December 12, 2013
• Moderator, “Tackling the Review Process: Learn from Industry Leaders How It’s Done,” New York Law Journal webinar, December 9, 2013
• Speaker, “Roadmap to Defensible Deletion and Efficient Retention Of Company Data,” Association of Corporate Counsel, Washington Metropolitan Area Chapter, November 5, 2013
• Moderator, “New Normal: Big Data and the Future of Litigation,” New York Law Journal webinar, April 15, 2013
• Speaker, “Defensible Disposal:  If it doesn’t exist, I don’t have to review it . . . right?” New York Law Journal webinar, March 18, 2013