Liz Ryan is a partner in Gibson Dunn’s Dallas office.  As a nationally recognized first-chair trial lawyer, Liz represents clients in complex, high-stakes disputes.  Her trial experience includes antitrust, business disputes, intellectual property, personal injury, and products liability cases.  She has a winning record, counseling clients and navigating them through disputes in federal courts, state courts, and arbitrations, including multi-district litigations, class actions, and mass actions.  Her experience spans industries, including consumer products, energy, financial services, life sciences, and technology.

Representative Experience*

• Payment card services corporation in an antitrust suit commenced by a competitor generally alleging that certain fees and agreements constitute an integrated scheme that violates antitrust laws.
• Major technology company as trial counsel in a high-stakes antitrust action in which the FTC sought to enjoin its planned acquisition of a virtual reality application developer.
• Leading American supermarket chain in the first bellwether jury trial against pharmacies in In re Opiate Litigation, in which two Ohio counties sought $3 billion in damages from the pharmacies.  At the close of the plaintiff’s case, the client successfully settled for a confidential amount.
• Leading broadband communications company as trial counsel in a False Claims Act case, which settled favorably on the eve of trial.
• Pioneering video game developer, in a breach of contract and theft of trade secrets case, through which the client sought more than $40 million in damages and also faced hundreds of millions of dollars in counterclaim damages.  The case settled for a confidential amount.
• Major pharmaceutical company in the multi-district litigation In re National Prescription Opiate Litigation  and in a lawsuit brought by the State of Oklahoma.
• Leading technology companies in a multi-billion-dollar theft of trade secrets and copyright lawsuit.
• Financial services company in an internet defamation case and obtained a record-setting $12.5 million dollar verdict.
• National private lender in a breach of contract case and obtained a judgment of more than $7 million dollars.
• Financial services division of an industrial conglomerate in a fraudulent transfer case and obtained a jury award of more than $3.3 million dollars.
• Leading international technology company in a breach of contract case and obtained a favorable settlement following arbitration.
• National real estate company in a breach of contract case and obtained the client’s full measure of damages and attorneys’ fees in trial.
• Numerous companies, including leading technology companies, in breach of non-solicitation and non-compete cases and obtained restraining orders and injunctions, as well as favorable settlements for clients.

Liz has been recognized for her work by leading national business and legal publications.  In 2023 and 2024, Chambers USA  ranked Liz among the top lawyers for General Commercial Litigation in Texas, with clients calling her “outstanding,” “very smart and extraordinarily professional,” “thorough and well prepared,” and “a very skilled trial lawyer.” From 2023 to 2025, The Best Lawyers in America  named Liz a “Best Lawyer” for Commercial Litigation.  In 2022, Texas Lawyer  named her among the 27 Texas attorneys “On the Rise,” which honors the top attorneys under 40.  Benchmark Litigation  has included Liz on its “40 & Under List” from 2017 to 2023, and Texas Super Lawyers  heralded Liz as a “Rising Star” in business litigation from 2014 to 2017.  In both 2018 and 2019, the National Diversity Council recognized Liz as one of the top female attorneys in Texas.

Liz is actively involved in several legal and community organizations.  She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.  She is a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel, an invitation-only, peer-reviewed organization whose members are distinguished law firm partners, in-house counsel, and insurance executives.  Liz is also a Barrister in the Barbara M.G. Lynn Inn of Court and was an inaugural member of the Dallas Bar Association’s WE LEAD program.  She also serves on the Women of Tocqueville’s Steering Committee for the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas.

Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Liz was a partner in the Dallas office of a major law firm.  Before that, she was a partner at a boutique commercial litigation firm based in Dallas. 

Liz received her J.D. from William and Mary School of Law, where she was admitted to the Order of the Barristers.  She received her B.A., summa cum laude  and Phi Beta Kappa, from Syracuse University.  After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Eugene E. Siler, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

*Matters handled prior to Gibson Dunn.