Domestic Violence

In one case, a Gibson Dunn team secured a two-year domestic violence restraining order in favor of a low-income mother of a developmentally delayed child, who suffered years of physical, psychological, and financial abuse from her husband. Before Gibson Dunn joined the case, our client’s temporary restraining order did not include a move-out order against her husband or an order for possession of her vehicle, leaving our client without stable housing or reliable transportation. The Gibson Dunn team successfully amended the request for a temporary restraining order to seek that additional relief.

At the evidentiary hearing, Gibson Dunn presented compelling evidence that our client suffered abuse from her husband throughout their 11-year marriage. The husband testified that he had never physically or otherwise abused our client, and attempted to argue that our client was the abuser. After a contested evidentiary hearing, including cross-examination of the husband, the court sided with our client and adopted our client’s testimony in its findings, concluding that our client was more credible than her husband. In addition to the restraining order against her husband, the court awarded our client sole legal and physical custody of their child, exclusive use of the residence (with the first month’s rent paid by the husband), and immediate return of her vehicle.

In another case, our lawyers achieved a huge success by obtaining a five-year restraining order and sole legal and physical custody for our client. The referring organization, Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (“LACLJ”) initially had warned that it would be a “very difficult” case because it was based on coercive control, including using and withholding time with the parties’ child as a means to control our client. LACLJ previewed that it was a novel legal argument and that they were unsure of the likelihood of success in the case. The team was not deterred, and advocated zealously for our client. LACLJ noted that, “thanks to their skill, dedication, bravery, and hard work in tackling this case, the client obtained a better result than we could have imagined!”

Gibson Dunn is proud to be a founding member of the Domestic Abuse Response Alliance (“DARA”), an advocacy alliance made up of ten law firms. DARA was launched to represent survivors of domestic abuse who are ineligible for legal aid and who cannot afford to pay for private representation. DARA is the largest pro bono project ever assembled in the United Kingdom to provide end-to-end representation and, crucially, advocacy for survivors seeking protective orders against their abusers.

DARA launched in 2022, against the backdrop of surges in domestic violence following the COVID-19 lockdowns. DARA has since grown to a multi-award winning collaboration of ten firms. DARA receives case referrals from the National Centre for Domestic Violence (“NCDV”) and Finding Legal Options for Women Survivors (“FLOWS”) and refers them to the participant firms on a taxi-rank basis. An operational committee, with representatives from each participant firm and mentor firm Beck Fitzgerald, meets monthly to share knowledge and best practice, to resolve challenges that arise, and to discuss policy and advocacy for change.

One of the most notable cases coming from DARA involved an 87-year-old woman who had suffered from years of financial and emotional abuse at the hands of her son. The firm successfully obtained a restraining order to protect the client and guided her through the proceedings while also navigating the sensitivities of the subject matter and the familial dynamics at play. To date, 40 Gibson Dunn lawyers have spent over 4,500 hours helping 17 individuals to bring restraining order proceedings against their abusers, with almost all of these resulting in successful hearings or effective settlement.

A group of Gibson Dunn lawyers also supported the Domestic Violence Project (“DVP”) of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Counsel for Justice. Through its team of trained volunteers, DVP strives to make the justice system more accessible for survivors who come to court for protection by providing legal information, assistance with preparing forms, and connections to other supportive services in the community. Over the past year, DVP served almost 2,000 self-represented litigants, most of them low-income; 80% of the litigants were women, about 40% were people of color, and one third were non-English speakers. Gibson Dunn lawyers provided 165 hours of pro bono services in 2023 alone, which accounted for about 10% of the project’s overall pro bono volunteer time.