Class Actions

LEADERS

Christopher Chorba

Los Angeles

Theane Evangelis

Los Angeles

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Overview

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Class Actions Practice Group has unrivaled experience in defeating enterprise-threatening class action lawsuits throughout the United States.

These lawsuits present significant risks to brand equity and business performance.  The Class Actions group at Gibson Dunn has aggressive, methodical strategies for defeating class actions before they ever get off the ground, allowing you to focus on what matters most — your business.  The group defeats class certification through the use of systematic, efficient, economical, and winning techniques, and we approach each case with a fresh perspective and challenge conventional methods.

The group has an unparalleled record in securing early dismissal in cases where other defendants facing similar lawsuits have been forced to litigate through costly, burdensome discovery and other pretrial proceedings.  Acknowledging our continuing successes, Law360 named us a 2016 Class Action Practice Group of the Year “[f]or the seventh time in a row” and recognized “Gibson Dunn’s class action lawyers … for obtaining significant wins for high-profile clientele.”

Our unrivaled record of success includes many of the most significant class actions that have changed the landscape for business defendants across the country:

  • Victory in the Courtroom.  Gibson Dunn has an unmatched record of class action wins at trial.  Our lawyers have handled several complex jury trials in state and federal courts throughout the United States, and we regularly obtain defense verdicts in nationwide “test” cases.  As a result of our incomparable success in this arena, we often are able to resolve these matters at an early stage and on very favorable terms for our clients.
  • Appellate Victories.  Our team includes members of the firm’s world-renowned Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Group who have been able to overturn unfavorable outcomes in the trial courts, including several precedent-setting U.S. Supreme Court wins.
  • Managing Parallel Investigations.  Class action litigation often proceeds in tandem with, and may be prompted by, investigations by federal and state regulators and law enforcement agencies.  Our team of class action lawyers works with our White Collar Defense and Investigations and Crisis Management Practice Groups to proactively and seamlessly manage these situations.

Gibson Dunn’s Class Actions Practice Group is also part of our firmwide litigation department, which The American Lawyer named a Finalist in its 2018 Litigation Department of the Year competition.  This award followed our firm’s unprecedented three wins in this biennial competition – as the 2016, 2012 and 2010 Litigation Department of the Year – and 2014 Finalist honors.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Supreme Court Upholds Agreements To Individually Arbitrate Employment-Related Disputes

-May 21, 2018

First Quarter 2018 Update on Class Actions

-May 4, 2018

Supreme Court Holds States May Hear Securities Fraud Class Actions Under The 1933 Act

-March 20, 2018

Michele Maryott and Theane Evangelis Named Litigators of the Week

-February 16, 2018

Fourth Quarter 2017 Update on Class Actions

-January 31, 2018

Third Quarter 2017 Update on Class Actions

-November 7, 2017

Second Quarter 2017 Update on Class Actions

-August 1, 2017

Viewing Class Settlements Through a New Lens: Part 1 and Part 2

-July 25, 2017

United States Supreme Court Limits Class-Action Tolling

-June 26, 2017

First Quarter 2017 Update on Class Actions

-May 19, 2017

Judge Neil Gorsuch’s Potential Impact on the Development of Class Action Law

-March 13, 2017

Corporate Social Responsibility Statements – Recent Litigation and Avoiding Pitfalls

-March 9, 2017

2016 Year-End Update on Class Actions

-February 1, 2017

Will the High Court Resolve Circuit Split on Class Waivers in Employee Arbitration Agreements?

-November 10, 2016

Third Quarter 2016 Update on Class Actions

-October 27, 2016

Individual Issues Predominate In Toxic Tort Class Actions

-October 4, 2016

The Interrelationship Between Price Impact and Loss Causation After Halliburton I & II

-October 3, 2016

Removing Securities Act Cases: MoneyGram Bucks the Trend

-September 9, 2016

Spokeo and Absent Class Member Standing

-August 12, 2016

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Future of Class Action Waivers

-July 7, 2016

U.S. Supreme Court Holds That Violation of a Statutory Right, Without a Resulting “Concrete” Injury, Does Not Satisfy Article III’s Injury-in-Fact Requirement

-May 17, 2016

Plaintiffs Face High Class Cert. Bar In Antitrust Cases

-February 8, 2016

2015 Year-End Update on Class Actions

-February 1, 2016

U.S. Supreme Court Hears Argument in Big Data Case with Far-Reaching Implications

-November 9, 2015

Summary Judgment Strategies In Class, Collective Actions

-October 21, 2015

U.S. CFPB Announces Rulemaking To Curtail Use Of Arbitration Agreements That Bar Class Actions In Consumer Financial Contracts

-October 13, 2015

UK Consumer Rights Act 2015 Ushers in Class Action-Style Collective Proceedings Regime in the Competition Appeals Tribunal

-October 2, 2015

The Need to Establish Absent Class Member Standing in Antitrust Class Actions

-October 1, 2015

Supreme Court Should Use Trio of Cases to Reaffirm That Uninjured Plaintiffs Have No Place in Class Actions

-September 25, 2015

2015 Mid-Year E-Discovery Update

-July 15, 2015

Judging Uninjured Plaintiffs’ Standing

-April 29, 2015

Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Outlook and Review: 2015

-February 17, 2015

2014 Year-End Update on Class Actions

-January 30, 2015

Creating a Clear Circuit Split, the Second Circuit Holds That Failure to Disclose Known Trends or Uncertainties Under Item 303 of Regulation S-K Creates Liability Under Section 10(b)

-January 22, 2015

2014 Year-End E-Discovery Update

-January 20, 2015

Ninth Circuit Holds That State Is Precluded from Seeking Remedies Released Through Previous Class Action Settlement

-November 13, 2014

11th Circ. Message: Be Careful With Lone Pine Orders

-November 10, 2014

Emerging Issues in the Law of Class Certification

-October 24, 2014

Duran, Due Process, and the Class Action Device

-August 6, 2014

Dukes May Have Doomed Toxic Tort Class Certification

-July 30, 2014

Employing U.S. Subpoena Power in Support of Foreign Litigation: Chevron Corp. v. Donziger and 28 U.S.C. § 1782

-July 14, 2014

California Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects Statistical Sampling That Deprived Class Action Defendant of Its Ability to Present Individualized Defenses

-May 30, 2014

The Changed Landscape of Businesses’ Right to Enforce Arbitration Agreements: A Survey of Class Actions Involving Petitions to Compel Arbitration After Concepcion

-November 22, 2013

When a Whistleblower Walks: Dodd-Frank and the Challenges That Employee Departures Present

-August 19, 2013

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Addresses “Unsettled Question” of Whether American Pipe Tolling Applies to the Statute of Repose for Securities Act Claims

-July 8, 2013

U.S. Supreme Court Reaffirms Enforceability of Class Arbitration Waivers

-June 25, 2013

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Its Foundation, Authorities, and First Year of Enforcement

-June 5, 2013

Cyber-security and Data Privacy Outlook and Review: 2013

-April 16, 2013

U.S. Supreme Court Prevents Class Action Plaintiffs from Evading Federal Jurisdiction under CAFA

-March 20, 2013

Federal Trade Commission Updates Online Advertising Disclosure Guidelines; Addresses Mobile Devices and Social Media

-March 14, 2013

U.S. Supreme Court Holds That Plaintiffs Need Not Prove Materiality to Obtain Class Certification in Securities-Fraud Class Actions

-March 1, 2013

Class Actions Update: Key Trends and Key Cases in the Year Ahead

-February 20, 2013

The “Next Wave” of Class Certification Issues

-December 14, 2012

Chancery Court Continues Close Scrutiny in Section 220 Actions

-November 28, 2012

Due Process Limitations on Aggregating Claims Under State Procedural Law

-September 14, 2012

Shining the Light on California’s “Shine the Light” Law

-September 5, 2012

Crafting a Successful E-Mail Notification Program

-May 1, 2012

California Supreme Court Hands Down Long-Anticipated Wage-and-Hour Class Action Decision in Brinker v. Superior Court

-April 13, 2012

2011 Year-End Data Privacy and Security Update

-February 7, 2012

A New Battlefield

-February 1, 2012

2011 Year-End Update on Class Actions

-January 30, 2012

Review Your Arbitration Provisions Now: Practical Considerations After the U.S. Supreme Court Decision in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion

-January 1, 2012

Nationwide Privacy Class Action Dismissed in In re iPhone Application Litigation Based on Lack of Article III Standing

-September 27, 2011

Challenging the Presumption of Reliance on Class Certification after Halliburton and Wal-Mart

-August 1, 2011

Delaware Supreme Court Holds That Derivative Plaintiffs May Assert Insider Trading Claims Without Pleading Harm to the Corporation

-July 5, 2011

California Supreme Court Extends California Overtime Laws to Non-California-Based Employees When Working in the State

-July 5, 2011

U.S. Supreme Court Unanimously Reverses Ninth Circuit and Holds That Employment Class Action Against Wal-Mart Cannot Proceed

-June 21, 2011

Ninth Circuit Rules that Emailed Receipts Do Not Trigger the Identity Theft Provisions of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act

-June 2, 2011

U.S. Supreme Court Finds That Class Action Waivers in Arbitration Agreements Are Enforceable Under the Federal Arbitration Act

-April 27, 2011

Seventh Circuit Issues Important Decision on Key Class-Certification Issues

-April 5, 2011

A Return to the Wild West for Calif. UCL Actions

-February 28, 2011

California Supreme Court Holds That Recording Customers’ ZIP Codes in Credit Card Transactions Can Violate California Consumer Law

-February 23, 2011

E-Discovery Trends: Latest Scheindlin Decision Offers Guidance Regarding Format of Production, Metadata and Rule 26(f) Duties

-February 10, 2011

The Delaware Supreme Court Holds That Certain Plaintiffs Can Prosecute A Corporate Books And Records Action Even After They Have Filed A Derivative Lawsuit

-February 7, 2011

Seventh Circuit Places Important Limits on Class Certification of ERISA Claims in Defined Contribution Plans

-February 3, 2011

Class Distinctions

-February 1, 2011

“Made in the U.S.A.” Decision Threatens Return to the “Wild West” for California Unfair Competition Law Class Actions

-January 31, 2011

E-Discovery Trends: Delaware Chancery Court Adopts Preservation Guidelines for Electronically Stored Information

-January 28, 2011

Turning Back from the Abyss: D.C. Court of Appeals Puts An End To “No Injury” Representative Actions Under D.C. Consumer Law

-January 27, 2011

2010 Fall Update on Class Actions: The Plaintiffs’ Bar on the Move

-September 13, 2010

Aggregation or Stacking of Penalties or Punitive Measures

-September 1, 2010

Other Due Process Challenges To The Class Device

-September 1, 2010

Res Judicata and Collateral Estoppel Issues in Class Litigation

-September 1, 2010

Multistate Class Actions and Choice of Law

-September 1, 2010

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Issues Decision Curtailing Federal Jurisdiction Over Class Actions

-August 17, 2010

U.S. Supreme Court Limits Availability of Class Action Arbitration

-May 3, 2010

United States Supreme Court Invalidates State Limit on Class Actions in Federal Diversity Action

-April 2, 2010

United States Supreme Court Adopts the “Nerve Center” Test to Determine a Corporation’s Principal Place of Business

-February 24, 2010

E-Discovery Trends: Significant New Decision by Author of Famed Zubulake Decisions

-January 14, 2010

Discovery Prior To Class Certification: New Considerations And Challenges

-January 7, 2010

Third Circuit Issues Important Decision Regarding Class Certification and Americans with Disabilities Act

-July 24, 2009

Ninth Circuit Issues A Trilogy Of Decisions That May Significantly Enhance Defendants’ Ability To Contest Class Certification And Liability

-July 14, 2009

2009 Mid-Year FCPA Update

-July 7, 2009

Considering Coupons

-May 27, 2009

Warning–This Decision May Be Hazardous to Your Health: The Supreme Court of California Clarifies the Scope of Proposition 64’s Standing Amendments to the Unfair Competition Law

-May 26, 2009

Will ‘Bridge’ Lead to More RICO Fraud-Based Certifications

-May 18, 2009

Tenth Circuit Clarifies Loss Causation Burden

-May 4, 2009

Supreme Court of California Exempts Life Insurance Products from Scope of California’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act

-April 27, 2009

2009: First-Quarter Update on Class Action Trends

-April 24, 2009

Interlocutory Appellate Review of Class-Certification Rulings under Rule 23(f): Do Articulated Standards Matter?

-March 31, 2009