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Erica Sollazzo Payne is a litigation associate in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. She is a member of the Firm’s Media, Entertainment, and Technology; Appellate and Constitutional Law; Privacy, Cybersecurity, and Data Innovation; and Intellectual Property Practice Groups.
Her practice focuses on a broad range of high-stakes trial and appellate litigation, especially cases that involve media and entertainment issues, labor and employment issues, and constitutional or other claims arising under federal and state civil rights laws. Erica has significant experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants, including in arbitration and in a jury trial involving more than $2 billion in potential damages. She has drafted dispositive and discovery motion papers, appellate briefs, and amicus briefs at all levels of federal and state court, including the U.S. Supreme Court and the New York Court of Appeals. She also has significant experience with emergency litigation, successfully representing clients seeking or opposing preliminary injunctions in multiple matters. She is a co-author of “Defamation and Reputation Management in the United States” for the global research platform Lexology.
Representative matters include:
Erica maintains an active pro bono practice. She has directly represented an asylum applicant and obtained a grant of asylum from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Erica has also participated in multiple cases involving the Second Amendment and the federal Gun Control Act, including by filing amicus briefs on behalf of 139 members of the House of Representatives in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York (U.S. Supreme Court); members of the business community in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (U.S. Supreme Court); and the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence in United States v. Missouri (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit). She has worked extensively with the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which awarded Erica’s team the Richard D. Odgers Pro Bono Partner Award in 2021.
Before joining Gibson Dunn, Erica clerked for the Honorable Raymond J. Lohier, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
She earned her J.D., with pro bono distinction, from Stanford Law School in 2017. While in law school, Erica served as managing editor of the Stanford Law Review and testified before the United States Copyright Office through the Juelsgaard Intellectual Property and Innovation Clinic. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English from Princeton University, where she was one of 14 students elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior.
Erica is admitted to practice law in the State of New York, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Stanford University - 2017 Juris Doctor
Princeton University - 2014 Bachelor of Arts
New York Bar