Gibson Dunn Named Litigation Department of the Year by The American Lawyer Magazine

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is pleased to announce its selection as the best litigation firm in the nation by The American Lawyer magazine in its fifth biennial "Litigation Department of the Year" competition. In awarding this honor, The American Lawyer dubbed Gibson Dunn's litigators the "Game Changers," adding, "when other firms and conventional strategies come up short, clients in deep trouble turn to Gibson Dunn for fresh, aggressive thinking and innovative rescues." The magazine also honored Gibson Dunn's Labor and Employment group as a finalist in its labor and employment competition. The winners were just announced in the magazine's January 2010 issue.

In selecting Gibson Dunn as the "Litigation Department of the Year," The American Lawyer credited the firm's "marquee partners, deep bench, and calm in the face of clients' worst problems." The magazine further observed:

• "Time and again in 2008-09, blue-chip clients in desperate straits have turned to Gibson Dunn lawyers to get them out of trouble at every stage, from subpoena to summary judgment to U.S. Supreme Court final appeal."
• "In case after case, Gibson Dunn litigators stepped in when clients needed not just a law firm, but a rescue squad."
• "Gibson Dunn has also been a top choice for law firms in need of their own rescue, particularly in malpractice litigation."
• Gibson Dunn takes a "holistic" approach to litigation, often "involving appellate specialists at the outset" to identify issues and develop strategies. "That approach requires Gibson Dunn to call frequently upon what is perhaps its greatest asset: the appellate and constitutional law group."
• The firm's "holistic approach" includes "a strategic commitment not only to affect outcomes, but to change the law."
• "Nothing illustrates Gibson Dunn's refusal to let precedent or prior results stand in its way more clearly than its recent record at the Supreme Court, where it won six of the nine cases it handled (with a decision still pending in one)."

In addition to naming Gibson Dunn "Litigation Department of the Year," The American Lawyer magazine also selected the firm as one of two finalists in its Labor & Employment competition. The magazine described Gibson Dunn's labor and employment team as one that "wields outsize influence in developing areas of the law," and "its motions and appeals practice has become the one to beat, winning impressive reversals in several matters that other counsel have fumbled."

"This is an enormous honor for the firm and a much deserved tribute to our litigators," said Ken Doran, Managing Partner of Gibson Dunn. "We would like to thank The American Lawyer, and most of all, we would like to thank our clients for trusting us with their most important matters and giving us the opportunity to show them what we can do."

"We are honored by this recognition and especially appreciate the designation The American Lawyer has now given us as the 'Game Changers,'" said Randy Mastro, Co-Chair of the Litigation Department. "We are a firm that clients in distress have turned to when facing their most severe litigation problems, and we have been their problem solvers. That is what drives us as a litigation group, and that is what we are committed to continuing to do for our clients."

About the Firm

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is a leading international law firm. Consistently ranking among the world's top law firms in industry surveys and major publications, Gibson Dunn is distinctively positioned in today's global marketplace with more than 1,000 lawyers and 16 offices, including Brussels, Century City, Dallas, Denver, Dubai, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Orange County, Palo Alto, Paris, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Singapore, and Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.gibsondunn.com.

SOURCE Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP