Trials

Gibson Dunn is home to the most preeminent trial practice in the world. We lead the market in trial victories across industries, practices and venues. Clients call on us to handle their most consequential and bet-the-company matters. We win cases that change our world and make a major difference for our economy and society. Our winning track record is unparalleled. When the stakes are highest and the evidentiary and legal challenges appear insurmountable, clients turn to Gibson Dunn to take control and win.

Gibson Dunn’s first-chair trial lawyers consistently litigate and win high-profile, headline-grabbing cases at the cutting edge of the law before juries, judges, arbitrators, and administrative agencies, setting both industry standards and legal precedent. With the diversity and scope of these matters, the firm has come to “specialize” in virtually every type of major litigation.

We owe our success to our extraordinary team of seasoned and renowned trial lawyers who have a passion for winning and a unique ability to see the big picture in order to achieve the best possible results. Our litigators leverage their skills and proficiency as trial lawyers throughout the life cycle of a case to skillfully present complex and challenging information in order to secure a victory, including pre-trial knockouts on a motion to dismiss or on summary judgment. Our best-in-class appellate lawyers are integral to our trial teams and help to drive effective legal strategy and craft case-shaping motions.

We are routinely brought in as trial counsel at the outset of a matter, but when a case being handled by another firm is headed in the wrong direction, companies frequently turn to Gibson Dunn’s trial team throughout the life-span of a litigation—whether during discovery, before or after summary judgment, or on the eve of trial—to take over the case, chart a new path, and save the day. Our trial team boasts an exceptional track record of re-engineering cases for our clients’ benefit, with the resources to rapidly ramp up onboarding and the industry reputation and the skill to turn around a case. Dubbed the “Rescue Squad” by The American Lawyer, the publication noted that “when other firms and conventional strategies come up short, clients in deep trouble turn to Gibson Dunn for fresh, aggressive thinking and innovative rescues.”

Our practice draws from a deep bench of talent across offices and disciplines, offering clients unique perspectives and strategic insights. This includes seven fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers, three fellows of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and numerous former federal prosecutors and government trial attorneys, including four former presidentially appointed United States Attorneys, more than three dozen former Assistant U.S. Attorneys, two former federal judges, multiple former SEC lawyers, 35 U.S. Supreme Court clerks, over 250 circuit court clerks, and over 250 district court clerks.

Gibson Dunn has repeatedly been recognized by Benchmark Litigation as one of the “Top 20 Trial Law Firms” and one of Law360’s “Trial Groups of the Year.” The firm’s litigators have been named leading trial attorneys by numerous publications, including Benchmark, Chambers USA, and Legal 500.

“When the stakes are highest and the spotlight is brightest, Gibson Dunn answers the call.” The American Lawyer

Representative Matters

Apple turned to Gibson Dunn, to defend it in Epic v. Apple, the most significant antitrust trial in recent decades, securing a historic victory and defeating Epic’s antitrust attacks on Apple’s App Store and business model. 

Secured a historic victory, affirmed on appeal by the Ninth Circuit, for Apple Inc. in the three-week Epic v. Apple trial in the Northern District of California where Epic challenged the core business model Apple had relied upon for its iPhone App Store since the Store’s inception, alleging that Apple’s App Store business practices violated Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, and that Apple’s “anti-steering” provisions were “unfair” under California’s Unfair Competition Law. A formidable Gibson Dunn team led by partners Rich Doren, Veronica Moyé, Dan Swanson, Cynthia Richman, Jason Lo and Jay Srinivasan successfully steered Apple through the 16-day bench trial dubbed as the “Super Bowl of Antitrust.”

Gibson Dunn secured complete victory for Grubhub in bellwether gig economy trial.

Obtained a complete victory for Grubhub in an enterprise-threatening class action in the Northern District of California in which the named plaintiff, a Grubhub delivery partner, challenged his classification as an independent contractor and sought tens of millions of dollars of damages and civil penalties. A Gibson Dunn trial team led by Michele Maryott, Theane Evangelis, Ted Boutrous, and DJ Manthripragada cruised to victory as the court entered judgment in favor of Grubhub after the landmark, six-day, headline-grabbing trial in which Gibson Dunn crafted a creative, table setting strategy, removing the case to federal court and winning a rarely granted preemptive motion asking the judge to deny class certification.

Gibson Dunn won a vital bench trial victory for AMC Networks in a high-stakes lawsuit over profits from The Walking Dead.

 Obtained a sweeping bench trial victory for AMC Networks in the Los Angeles Superior Court when the executive producers of the hit television show “The Walking Dead” brought a lawsuit alleging the failure of payment of hundreds of millions of dollars they were due under their “profits participation” contracts. Given the financial stakes and industry-wide implications on similar contracts, AMC turned to Gibson Dunn partners Orin Snyder, Scott Edelman, Brian Ascher, and Ilissa Samplin to craft an effective and laser-focused trial team to demonstrate that plaintiffs’ attempts to rewrite their contracts after the fact would upend the industry, and render negotiated “profit participation” contracts null and void across the board. The Court agreed with Gibson Dunn, ruling in AMC’s favor on every issue presented at trial and rejecting plaintiffs’ interpretation of their contracts.

Gibson Dunn obtained an unprecedented directed verdict of no infringement for VMWare, Dell and EMC in a $435 million patent suit in the patent litigation capital of the United States.

Obtained an unprecedented trial victory for VMware and Dell in a bellwether patent infringement case in the Western District of Texas in which plaintiff levied a $435 million suit over 12 patents. Staring down the barrel at an initially unfavorable outlook, defendants turned to Gibson Dunn partners Josh Krevitt, Veronica Moyé, Brian Rosenthal, and Benjamin Hershkowitz to develop and execute a world-class trial strategy. Using discovery motions to confine issues and evidence, dismissing several of the 12 patents originally asserted (all 12 were against Dell and 4 of the 12 against VMware), and dialing the trial’s focus down to just three patents. The case went to trial for 3 of the 4 patents asserted against both Dell and VMware. One patent was knocked out prior to trial. Immediately after opening statements on the first day of trial, Gibson Dunn secured a pivotal ruling, that precluded plaintiff from presenting any infringement theory beyond what it had timely disclosed, which led to a successful summary judgment for the defendants on two of the three remaining patent claims, knocking those issues out of the case entirely before evidence could even be presented. When only one patent claim remained, Gibson Dunn successfully prevented plaintiff’s expert from testifying that key elements of their infringement claim were met, effectively barring plaintiff from presenting any evidence on essential aspects of its case. At the conclusion of the plaintiff’s case in chief, defendants moved for a directed verdict of no infringement, which Judge Albright granted – the first time Judge Albright had done so in a patent case since taking the bench. On the other 8 patents asserted only against Dell. Technically two remain, but one was invalidated by the PTAB. The case is stayed, and plaintiff just moved to dismiss the remaining two patents with prejudice.

Gibson Dunn obtained a complete defense verdict for Abbott in age discrimination jury trial.

Secured a complete defense victory on behalf of Abbott Laboratories Inc. in age discrimination litigation in the District of New Jersey brought by a former sales director at Abbott. Our team, led by Marcellus McRae, Gabrielle Levin, and Andrew LeGrand, highlighted for the jury the deficiencies in Plaintiff’s case, including the absence of causation between his termination and his age. On December 8, 2023, the jurors deliberated for less than an hour and unanimously found that Abbott had not terminated Plaintiff’s employment because of his age.

Gibson Dunn obtained a complete defense verdict for TikTok and ByteDance in a federal trademark case over TikTok’s “stitch” tool with hundreds of millions at stake.

Earned a complete defense verdict after a seven-day jury trial in the Central District of California in a federal trademark infringement suit brought against TikTok and ByteDance over TikTok’s “stitch” tool. A Gibson Dunn trial team led by Nick Hanna, Blaine Evanson, Elizabeth McCloskey, Howard Hogan and Poonam Kumar parachuted in before trial after the district court had denied TikTok’s summary judgment motion and after discovery was completed. The team immediately filed and argued a host of pretrial motions and otherwise prepared the case for trial, knocking out millions of the plaintiff’s damages claims, excluding key pieces of plaintiff’s evidence, and successfully opposing objections to several critical pieces of TikTok’s evidence. At trial, Gibson Dunn showed the jury that there was no likelihood of confusion between TikTok’s feature and Stitch Editing’s video editing service, that TikTok’s use of the term “stitch” is fair use, and that Stitch Editing did not suffer any damages. The jury unanimously rejected plaintiff’s arguments, and, after a seven-day trial, returned a complete defense verdict within three hours, rejecting all of plaintiff’s claims for which they sought millions. The jury’s verdict also halted the plaintiff’s remaining claims for punitive damages, as well as millions in alleged unjust enrichment damages and injunctive relief, which were to be heard by the district court after the jury phase.

Gibson Dunn achieved a seminal win in the United States Bankruptcy Court in Serta Simmons Bedding dispute.

Achieved a sweeping victory at trial in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, validating a transaction that provided Serta Simmons Bedding with new liquidity and a decreased debt load in order to ensure its survival during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our clients, an ad hoc group of lenders enlisted a Gibson Dunn trial team led by former appellate judge Gregg Costa, C. Lee Wilson, Orin Snyder, Helgi Walker, Amanda Aycock, Alison Wollin, Michael Nadler, and Alexandra Perloff-Giles. The case was tried on an expedited basis in adversary proceeding as part of Serta Simmons Bedding’s bankruptcy case, and included a successful summary judgment motion followed by a month of extensive discovery leading up to a week-long trial. Through discovery, our team uncovered strong evidence that the competing lenders interpreted the contracts at issue the same way when they were negotiating with the company, and only switched positions after our group of lenders prevailed in negotiations. Ultimately, the Gibson Dunn trial team convinced the bankruptcy court to rule in our clients’ favor on all claims, concluding that the evidence presented at trial made clear that the transaction was expressly permitted under the credit agreement at issue and that our clients acted in good faith throughout their negotiations with Serta Simmons Bedding.

Gibson Dunn secured a landmark civil rights decision that struck down California’s teacher tenure and dismissal statutes as unconstitutional.

Won a historic decision when, after a two-month trial, the California Superior Court struck down five provisions of the California Education Code as unconstitutional and enjoined their further enforcement. The five laws governed teacher tenure, dismissal and layoffs and, according to the court, imposed substantial harm on California’s students by forcing administrators to push some of the best teachers out and retain grossly ineffective ones. The court found that “substantial evidence” proved that the challenged laws “disproportionately affect poor and/or minority students” in violation of their constitutional right to educational equality. The California Court of Appeal ultimately reversed and the California Supreme Court declined to review over the dissent of 3 Justices. The trial team was led by Ted Boutrous, Marcellus McRae, and Josh Lipshutz. Vergara v. California (Sup. Ct., Los Angeles Cty., 2014; reversed, Cal. Ct. of Appeal, review declined, Cal. Supreme Ct., 2016).

Gibson Dunn secured a ground-breaking federal jury verdict in a civil rights case against LAPD officer for shooting a protestor in the face with a rubber bullet.

Achieved a first-of-its kind federal jury verdict in the U.S. District for the Central District of California in a historic civil rights case for the firm’s pro bono client, Deon Jones, when a jury returned a unanimous verdict in his favor, finding that a police officer violated Mr. Jones’s Fourth Amendment rights by shooting him in the face with a rubber bullet during a demonstration that occurred in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. In the seven-day trial, a Gibson Dunn trial team led by Orin Snyder illustrated to the jury how the officer acted maliciously or in reckless disregard of Mr. Jones’s rights by using unconstitutional and excessive force against him. Defeating on every dispositive motion the defendants filed and relentlessly pursuing discovery to recover the evidence needed to win the case, the Gibson Dunn trial team established through eyewitness testimony, as well as the LAPD’s own body worn camera footage, that the officer shot Mr. Jones as he stood peacefully in a crowd at the end of the protest. Most dramatic was Mr. Snyder’s cross-examination of the shooter, who testified in his own defense claiming that he did not shoot Mr. Jones at all and instead struck another individual. On cross-examination, Mr. Snyder impeached this testimony through multiple prior statements in which the officer had changed his story about when, whether and why he fired the critical shot that hit Mr. Jones. The jury rejected the officer’s alternative story and awarded Mr. Jones $375,000, including punitive damages.

Gibson Dunn secured a complete defense verdict after week-long jury trial in employment suit brought by former senior employee.

Secured a complete defense verdict for a high-end jewelry company in a week-long jury trial in California federal court. The case was filed in February 2022 by the company’s former Manager of West Coast Operations who alleged that his employment was terminated in violation of California Labor Code Section 1102.5 because he “blew the whistle” on alleged money laundering, commercial bribery and evasion of state sales tax. The plaintiff had brought other common law and contract claims that were dismissed on summary judgment. The case was tried over a week on an accelerated schedule. At trial, the Gibson Dunn team put on an extremely effective defense showing that the plaintiff wasn’t a whistleblower and that the company had legitimate reasons for his termination. Six witnesses testified, including the company’s Global Vice President of Sales, Chief Financial Officer and Global Head of Human Resources. The jury deliberated for ten minutes and returned a complete defense verdict on June 14, 2023. Plaintiff filed a post-verdict motion for judgment as a matter of law, which the court denied. Plaintiff has appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The trial team was led by Harris Mufson and included Megan Lawson and Courtney Johnson.