Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partners Theodore Boutrous Jr., Theane Evangelis, and Joshua Lipshutz led the firm's effort to win decertification for Uber in an appeal closely watched by gig economy companies where thousands of current and former drivers alleged they were misclassified as independent contractors. Partners Jeffrey Thomas, Samuel Liversidge, and  Blaine Evanson successfully defended Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. from about $100 million in copyright claims against competitor Oracle Corp. Partners Scott Edelman, Christopher Chorba, and Perlette Jura won decertification and a complete reversal for Yahoo in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act case where more than 320,000 potential class members pitted the company with more than $480 million in potential exposure. Meanwhile, Richard Doren, Jason Lo, and Daniel Swanson represented major consumer electronics manufacturers in their licensing dustup with Qualcomm.

That resume landed Gibson Dunn as one of six finalists for the Tech Litigation Department of the Year as part of The Recorder's California Leaders in Tech Law and Innovation Awards. The winner will be announced at a ceremony celebrating all winners and finalists Nov. 6. In the run-up to next month's announcement, The Recorder checked in with Boutrous, Gibson Dunn's litigation practice group co-chairman, about what sets Gibson Dunn litigators apart.

What are the distinguishing characteristics of litigators that practice at Gibson Dunn?

We regularly represent leading technology companies in tackling the most urgent issues they currently face, chief among them: antitrust, privacy, intellectual property, and challenges to their business models, areas that are leading to novel legal questions, the establishment of critical legal precedents and results that shape the future of our clients' businesses and industries.

So many of our clients' cases have dominated recent news coverage. Our clients turn to us because our litigators are adept at navigating intense media scrutiny while delivering exceptional results in the courtroom.

With a reputation as a litigation powerhouse and as a tough trial adversary, we are viewed in the market as one of a handful of "go-to" firms in California. Our attorneys handle almost every imaginable area of controversy in every court in the country. Additionally, we excel at helping clients with compliance issues, regulatory scrutiny, and enforcement actions, as well as other potential legal consequences of high-priority business actions.

The firm is also renowned for its appellate advocacy. With our unparalleled appellate experience, we are best positioned to anticipate potential appellate issues and prepare for them well ahead of time.

When clients come to your firm for representation on a piece of litigation, what can they expect?

We begin every case by first understanding our client's business and industry. This familiarity with the client's business allows our attorneys to advise on critical issues and bring to each case a tailored approach based on the client's goals and challenges. From the outset, we develop a coordinated plan of attack that includes every potential stage of the litigation—from initial pleadings through appeal. In addition to advancing a winning litigation strategy, our litigators recognize the need to support litigation objectives by guiding policy on proposed legislation and regulation and developing novel legal theories and winning narratives in the courtroom and in the media.

Our clients can expect exceptional work product, dedicated client teams, seamless communication and client service, and to work closely with our litigators every step of the way in bringing a matter to successful resolution. The firm is known for its collegial culture. Our attorneys are proud to be known for working well together and with co-counsel and opposing counsel. Clients often create "virtual firms" on significant matters, which can mean bringing together attorneys across offices—and even firms—to work on a case or issue.

Our clients can also expect that we will anticipate challenges before they arise and develop creative strategies to minimize the risk of future litigation. Further, we believe that cases should be litigated with the appellate courts in mind. Bringing appellate experience to trial litigation is a specialty of ours, and something we have done successfully for many clients.

While our goal is to win matters as early as possible to protect our clients' ability to conduct their business without distraction, we also actually try cases, and we argue groundbreaking appeals in state and federal courts of appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court with regularity.

How does your firm gauge success on any particular litigation matter?

We believe that the objective of any defense is to obtain a favorable resolution of the case as efficiently as possible while protecting our client's business, brand and reputation and enabling our client to conduct their business at the highest level with minimal harm to their interests and assets.

We excel at what we do because we approach each matter with the understanding that there is not a one-size-fits-all litigation strategy. We evaluate what's at stake, the forum, and the impact of public opinion and media scrutiny. Perhaps the most telling indicator of our success on a case is that our clients return to us again and again with their most sensitive matters.

What ways is the business of litigation changing, and how are you adapting to those changes?

Clients need outside counsel to be nimble, be efficient, and deliver results. And clients expect outside counsel to know their business, understand the broader issues they are facing, and anticipate threats to the business, so that preventive strategies can be implemented to minimize litigation risk. We partner with clients to ensure that we understand what is driving their decisions so we can deliver the results they need. We also excel at efficiently and seamlessly collaborating with in-house counsel and co-counsel to coordinate a consistent winning litigation strategy across matters.