Gibson Dunn Law Firm Hit For Representing Abusive U.S. Companies

With over 1,500 lawyers around the world, Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher LLP is regarded as a top law firm in the United States.

Photo Insert: Even by the standards of the legal industry, Gibson Dunn’s behavior is notorious.

Gibson Dunn profits from squashing class action lawsuits and labor organizing drives, keeping shareholders from reforming corporate practices and debtors from getting their day in court, and shielding US firms from accountability for their actions overseas and from regulation at home.

Even by the standards of the legal industry, however, Gibson Dunn’s behavior is notorious, reported Leehi Yona and David Cremins for The Nation magazine on Jan. 13, 2022. In 2007, the Montana Supreme Court rebuked the firm for engaging in “actual malice” and “legal thuggery,” and a Delaware judge recently described its pretrial practices as constituting “fraud.”

Yet, Gibson Dunn’s behavior goes even further. It spent more than a decade defending Chevron in a lawsuit brought by indigenous communities whose homeland was poisoned by an oil spill in Ecuador.

When Ecuadorian courts awarded those indigenous communities a $9.5 billion judgment, Gibson Dunn was involved in overturning that ruling in a corporate-friendly US court, leading to the prosecution of Steven Donziger, a human rights attorney who represented the Ecuadorian plaintiffs.

Gibson Dunn’s involvement in the Chevron case is a chilling example of the lengths the firm is willing to go to represent the fossil fuel industry and silence anyone in the way.

Gibson Dunn’s record on climate change is unapologetically awful. Law Students for Climate Accountability (LSCA), an organization that scores law firms based on their environmental activities, gave the firm an F this year, the lowest score possible.

Gibson Dunn has lobbied for Koch Industries and represented the corporation behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, a project that would violate indigenous rights.

In another affront to native sovereignty, Gibson Dunn has also represented those seeking to overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act. Over the last decade, the firm has brought in nearly $27 billion in fossil fuel and energy revenue, with no sign of slowing down even as the need to halt and reverse carbon emissions becomes all the more urgent.

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic