Kristin A. Linsley

Kristin A. Linsley is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s San Francisco office where she is a member of the Litigation Department. Ms. Linsley specializes in complex business and appellate litigation across a spectrum of subject areas, including international and transnational law, technology and privacy, and complex financial litigation.

She has earned a national reputation for achieving favorable results for her clients in high-profile complex matters, and is noted for the strength of her legal analysis and the depth and breadth of her litigation experience.

In the area of business litigation, Ms. Linsley has defended clients in high-stakes litigation involving financial issues arising from the mortgage crisis, commercial/contract disputes between companies, securities fraud and RICO violations, technology, telecommunications, and privacy issues, consumer class actions, intellectual property, and defense and aerospace-related issues.

Ms. Linsley has a strong regulatory practice, advising clients on compliance with federal, state, and local laws and regulations, and also devising and implementing legal challenges to such laws and regulations where necessary.  Ms. Linsley has handled such challenges in a wide range of matters in both federal and state court.

Ms. Linsley also has an active appellate practice representing clients in a wide range of industries before the federal and state appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.  Ms. Linsley has briefed and argued appeals on a wide range of matters, including cases involving complex business transactions, jurisdictional and procedural issues, class actions, and telecommunications issues.

On the international/transnational side, Ms. Linsley has spent over two decades litigating complex international law issues arising from clients’ overseas operations, including claims brought under the Alien Tort Statute. She also has handled multiple actions seeking to impose liability on companies under the Anti-Terrorism Act based on claimed “material support” for International terrorist activities. Ms. Linsley is a frequent writer and speaker on these issues.

Ms. Linsley also was appointed in 2008 by the U.S. Supreme Court to serve as a Special Master in an original case before the court, South Carolina v. North Carolina, Original No. 138, the first woman to hold that post. She has translated that experience into an expertise in water law, including representing a California municipality and holder of significant Colorado River water rights in a petition to the State Water Resources Control Board.

Ms. Linsley’s clients have included Facebook, Bank of America, Fidelity Investments, Archer-Daniels-Midland, the Lawrence Livermore National Labs, The Boeing Company, Northrop, Tessera, Inc., Financial Engines, and Occidental Petroleum.

Ms. Linsley was recently selected as one of The National Law Journal’s Outstanding Women Lawyers—one of the 75 most accomplished female attorneys in the U.S. legal profession. She has been named for multiple years as one of California’s “Top Women Lawyers” by the Daily Journal.  She also was recently profiled by Law360 as a “Female Powerbroker.”

Ms. Linsley is a frequent writer and speaker on a range of legal issues, including international and transnational litigation matters and original jurisdiction and water allocation disputes between states. She has spoken at the ABA Environmental Law Section conference in Indianapolis, the American Constitution Society, Duke University, the Federalist Society, Georgetown University Law Center, Pepperdine University, UC Hastings, UC Irvine School of Law, UCLA and Rutgers University, among others.

Ms. Linsley served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in the 1989 Term and for Judge D.H. Ginsburg of the D.C. Circuit in 1988-89. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1988. She received an A.B. magna cum laude in 1982 from Harvard University, where she was captain of the women’s cross country team and a member of the All-East and All-Ivy teams for track and field and cross country.

Ms. Linsley is admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court, the 9th Circuit, the Federal Circuit and the federal and state courts in California and New York. She is a member of the ABA Litigation Section.