Clients routinely describe lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in superlatives. “Strategic thinkers,” “creative,” “tenacious” and “responsive” were words we heard again and again. But the firm, with its premium fees, is not “for everyday blocking and tackling,” admits Ford Motor Co. appeals counsel Marcy Hahn. “They’re a go-to firm where there’s more at stake.”
A lot was at stake for Ford, for example, when the company faced an adverse appellate panel decision in 2014 that revived a potentially disastrous Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claim. The EEOC, in a test case, accused Ford of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act when it didn’t accommodate an employee with irritable bowel syndrome who wanted to telecommute. The case went to the heart of whether an employer should be able to define what a work environment should be, Hahn says. Gibson Dunn’s Helgi Walker and Eugene Scalia obtained a rare en banc rehearing for Ford from the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In April, after Walker’s oral arguments, the court reversed its earlier decision. The Gibson Dunn team “was not just thinking about how to win the case,” Hahn says, “but the broader legal landscape and how, in light of that, Ford could prevail.”
