Two Leading Trial Lawyers Join Paul, Weiss

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP announced today that Meredith Dearborn and Jessica E. Phillips are joining the firm as partners in the Litigation Department. Ms. Dearborn will be part of a new office the firm is planning in Northern California and Ms. Phillips will be resident in the Washington, D.C. office. Both experienced trial lawyers have litigated numerous high-stakes commercial cases around the country on behalf of leading technology businesses and other Fortune 100 companies.

“Meredith and Jessica add to the extraordinary talent of our partnership,” said Paul, Weiss Chairman Brad S. Karp. “Their experience and track record of success on behalf of the nation’s largest technology companies, in their most important matters, will be of great benefit to our clients, including many based on the West Coast.”

Ms. Dearborn represents clients in disputes involving intellectual property, contracts, California state statutory and common law and antitrust law, with a particular focus on the technology sector. She has taken eight cases to trial, including a successful defense for which she and colleague Karen Dunn, now a fellow Paul, Weiss partner, were honored as “Litigators of the Week” by The American Lawyer. Ms. Dearborn has long been recognized for her skill set and dynamism; in recent years, she has been recognized as one of Silicon Valley’s “40 Under 40” by Silicon Valley Business Journal and as a Next Generation honoree in The Recorder’s 2018 “Women Leaders in Tech Law,” among others. She is also a Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School.

Ms. Dearborn earned her J.D. at University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif, and her B.A., cum laude, from Yale University. Ms. Dearborn clerked for the Hon. John C. Coughenour in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Ms. Phillips is likewise an experienced litigator who has represented clients at trial and in state and federal appellate courts, including before the U.S. Supreme Court. A versatile litigator, she has experience in matters involving contract law, business torts, securities fraud, employment law, constitutional law, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law. She also regularly represents clients facing government investigations into alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), export controls and trade sanctions, and other regulatory regimes. Ms. Phillips recently helped secure a complete defense verdict for a healthcare company in a billion-dollar trial and a complete defense verdict for a U.S. services business of a U.K.-based global defense tech company at trial. In addition, she currently represents individuals who were injured in the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in a lawsuit against 24 neo-Nazis, white supremacists and affiliated hate groups who organized and conspired to commit violence at the rally.

Ms. Phillips earned her B.A., with honors, and her J.D., cum laude, from Northwestern University. She clerked for the Hon. Joel M. Flaum of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and for Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr.