Any mention of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's intellectual property work in 2014 must center on Alice v. CLS Bank. In a ruling viewed as the single biggest disrupter in patent law in recent times, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously sided with Gibson Dunn on the limits of patent eligibility.

Courts across the country seized on the ruling to knock out suits early, and patent case filings plummeted in part because of Alice, a study by Lex Machina found.

While Alice's long-term effects are still being debated, the ruling was a clear victory for Gibson Dunn, and brought to an end long-running litigation that threatened to cripple client CLS Bank International, a financial institution that clears $4 trillion in transactions every day in the United States.