Press Release

LOS ANGELES, April 22, 2008 – Winston & Strawn LLP announced today that prominent business litigator John S. Gibson has joined the firm's Los Angeles office as a partner in its litigation practice. Gibson was previously a partner at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP.

“We are extremely pleased that  John has joined our expanding Los Angeles office,” said Laura R. Petroff, managing partner of the office. “Winston is building the premier litigation practice in the area, and attracting attorneys like John, as well as other new and highly- regarded litigation partners, demonstrates our commitment to this goal.”

Winston recently added prominent litigation partners David L. Aronoff and Gayle I. Jenkins in Los Angeles, and Patrick M. Ryan in San Francisco.

“John is one of the nation’s most accomplished litigators, and he is a valuable addition to our thriving practice,” said Neal Marder, chair of Winston’s Los Angeles litigation practice. “His deep expertise in the most complex business disputes is a tremendous complement to our established West Coast litigation capabilities.”

Gibson’s practice focuses on the representation of Fortune 500 companies in complex civil litigation, including antitrust and unfair competition litigation, post-trial litigation, class actions, commercial purchase disputes, lender-liability defense litigation and real estate litigation in arbitration and state and federal courts throughout the U.S.

At his previous firm, he served as chair of the firmwide real estate litigation group and hiring partner in the Los Angeles office. Gibson previously served as vice president and in-house counsel for the Robert M. Bass Group, supervising real estate workout litigation and transactions and advising companies in liquidating more than $6 billion in troubled real estate assets acquired from American Savings and Loan Association.

Active in the legal community, Gibson was a speaker at the 2005 and 2007 annual conferences of the California Minority Counsel Program. He is a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Antitrust and Unfair Competition Section and a member and former vice chair of the Real Property Section of the California State Bar. Gibson, a former summer league teammate of Earvin "Magic" Johnson, is also a youth basketball coach for the Amateur Athletic Union.

Gibson received his juris doctor from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was a member of the Michigan Law Review.  He earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, where he was a John Harvard Scholar.

Winston & Strawn LLP is an international commercial law firm with nearly 1,000 attorneys in eleven offices, including Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, Geneva, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, New York, Newark, N.J., Paris, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.  More than 150 years old, the firm has a proud tradition of professional excellence and dedicated client service, a diverse as well as collegial culture, and a commitment to pro bono representation. Understanding that our clients face many challenges on a daily basis, Winston & Strawn provides realistic solutions to legal issues to help make our clients' business lives simpler.