Deborah L. Stein is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Los Angeles office. She is a member of the Firm’s Litigation Practice Group and Co-Chair of its Insurance and Reinsurance Practice Group.

Ms. Stein is a nationally-recognized litigator who clients turn to when they feel like everything is on the line. Her practice covers a breadth of high-stakes matters, including privacy and cybersecurity litigation, securities and consumer class actions, and insurance coverage and business practices disputes. Clients entrust Ms. Stein with litigating their most significant matters because she is strategic, passionate, and “all in.” She recognizes that even in the most fast-paced, contentious litigations it is essential to take the time to learn and understand her clients’ businesses and commercial realities so that she can provide thoughtful, practical advice. Ms. Stein’s experience spans multiple industries, including technology, insurance, entertainment, healthcare, and financial services.

Market sources describe Ms. Stein as an “[e]xtremely smart and fearless litigator” who is “very tenacious” and “really focused on her clients’ interests.” Chambers USA recently profiled Ms. Stein as a “brilliant litigator,” and Benchmark Litigation has consistently identified her as one of the “Top 250 Women in Litigation” in the United States and a “California Litigation Star.” In 2021, Ms. Stein was named a Law360 MVP of the Year, an award recognizing attorneys “who had extraordinary wins and contributed most to their practice area in the past year.” The Legal 500 has named Ms. Stein a “Leading Lawyer” in General Commercial Disputes and Insurance: Advice to Insurers, and the Daily Journal has identified her as one of the “Top 75 Women Litigators” in California. Most recently, Ms. Stein was selected by her peers for inclusion in the 2023 and 2024 editions of The Best Lawyers in America® in the area of Commercial Litigation, as well as listed as one of the “500 Leading Litigators in America” by Lawdragon, 2024. One of Deb’s recent successes—obtaining dismissal of a high-profile putative class action against Universal Music Group—earned Deb a “Litigator of the Week” title by The American Lawyer.

Ms. Stein’s recent experience includes*:

• Defending Facebook in In re: Facebook, Inc. Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation, the multidistrict litigation arising out of the Cambridge Analytica events;
• Successfully representing Travelers in dozens of cases brought by policyholders seeking “business interruption” coverage for financial losses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, including securing the first Ninth Circuit published decision on the subject;
• Defending State Farm in class action litigation across the country relating to the pricing of universal life insurance policies;
• Securing the dismissal of a putative class action filed by high-profile musicians and estates against the Universal Music Group claiming that they were entitled to damages in connection with a warehouse fire on the Universal Studios lot;
• Successfully arguing a Ninth Circuit appeal concerning the interpretation and application of the Stored Communications Act in connection with allegations of “hacking”;
• Representing two automobile technology companies in litigation concerning the misappropriation of proprietary automotive data, including pursuit of claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Defend Trade Secrets Act;
• Successfully defending workers compensation insurance companies in cybersecurity class action litigation;
• Arbitrating a significant dispute between former joint venture partners concerning the dissolution of their technology joint venture and sale of its assets;
• Counseling private equity investment firm following data breach, coordinating incident investigation, and supervising digital forensics investigation;
• Advising online technology company with respect to practice of data scraping and re-publication;
• Obtaining court order enforcing and protecting privacy rights following misappropriation of confidential information by client’s former employee;
• Successfully defending insurers in False Claims Act litigation alleging industry-wide Medicare fraud;
• Successfully representing through appeal a financial institution in False Claims Act litigation relating to the federal assistance provided to AIG;
• Defending former officers of Washington Mutual in shareholder and FDIC litigation in federal court in Seattle;
• Successfully securing summary judgment and Ninth Circuit affirmance in insurance bad faith litigation;
• Obtaining a directed verdict at trial and Ninth Circuit affirmance on behalf of an insurance company against claims by another insurer for equitable contribution relating to hundreds of underlying construction defect claims;
• Achieving summary judgment on behalf of a leading property casualty insurer in a False Claims Act case relating to Hurricane Katrina claims handling practices; and
• Obtaining dismissal of a putative consumer class action filed against a leading producer, marketer and distributor of high-quality branded food products.

Ms. Stein serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Public Counsel, the nation’s largest provider of pro bono legal services.  She also serves on the Global Advisory Board of the Women in Law Empowerment Forum (WILEF), and was on the Board of Governors of the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles (WLALA) for several years. Ms. Stein is frequently asked to speak and write on insurance coverage issues and has authored a regular column for the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journals. She previously co-chaired the Cyber Risk and Data Privacy Subcommittee of the American Bar Association’s Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee (Section of Litigation). A trusted thought leader in the insurance industry, Ms. Stein was named to Law360’s Insurance Editorial Advisory Board in 2015 and 2016.

Ms. Stein received a B.A. from Yale University in 1995, with a double major in political science and studies in the environment. She obtained her J.D., cum laude, from the New York University School of Law in 1999, where she served as a Notes Editor on the New York University Law Review.  Prior to joining the Firm, Ms. Stein was a partner at the law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. She served as a law clerk for the Hon. Peter C. Dorsey in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.

*Includes representative matters handled prior to joining Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.