Lucas Townsend

Lucas Townsend

Partner, Gibson Dunn

Lucas C. Townsend is a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  He is a member of the firm’s Appellate and Constitutional Law and Intellectual Property practice groups.

​Mr. Townsend has litigated a wide range of appellate and trial matters in federal and state court.  Mr. Townsend’s appellate practice includes representing corporate clients in high-stakes commercial disputes, litigating cutting-edge legal issues before the Supreme Court of the United States, and representing pro bono clients before the courts of appeals.  Mr. Townsend’s intellectual property practice includes representing pharmaceutical, internet, and other technology companies in patent and trademark disputes.  In addition, Mr. Townsend regularly represents clients in litigation under the Administrative Procedure Act and provides counseling on accounting regulation.

Representative matters include serving as appellate counsel for the world’s largest social networking website and drafting successful briefing in a significant noninfringement appeal; briefing appeals on behalf of pharmaceutical patent holders in Hatch-Waxman Act litigation; drafting successful briefing for a documentary filmmaker’s First Amendment challenge to Colorado’s campaign finance laws; briefing appeals from final judgments in a landmark securities-fraud class action; representing a national hospital network in appellate litigation resulting in a $60 million reduction in a punitive damages award; representing broadcasters in litigation against the Federal Communications Commission under the Administrative Procedure Act; representing a for-profit education company in an enforcement action brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; and briefing numerous matters in the Supreme Court of the United States involving class certification, antitrust, employment, and constitutional issues.

Before joining the firm, Mr. Townsend served as a law clerk to the Honorable Samuel A. Alito, Jr. of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Honorable Maryanne Trump Barry of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and the Honorable Harold A. Ackerman of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.  Mr. Townsend also served as an Attorney Adviser in the United States Department of Justice, National Security Division, from 2007 to 2009.

Mr. Townsend graduated magna cum laude from the Seton Hall University School of Law, where he was Executive Editor of the Seton Hall Law Review.  He received an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Cornell University.

Mr. Townsend is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, New York, and New Jersey.



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