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ProfessionalsMeredith R. Dearborn

Meredith R. Dearborn
Partner

Tel: +1-650-208-2788
mdearborn@paulweiss.com

Tel: +1-650-208-2788
mdearborn@paulweiss.com
San Francisco

535 Mission Street, 24th Floor
San Francisco, California 94105

Education 
Clerkship 
Bar Admissions 
Education 
Clerkship 
Bar Admissions 

A partner in the Litigation Department, Meredith Dearborn has significant experience trying high-stakes commercial disputes for leading technology companies.

Meredith has taken eleven cases to trial on behalf of some of the largest tech firms in Northern California and others. Her matters involve a variety of substantive areas, including antitrust, intellectual property, securities, and California state legal issues.

Meredith has long been recognized for her talent and dynamism. In 2024, she was recognized by the Daily Journal as one of its “Top Women Lawyers” for the second consecutive year. In 2023, Meredith notably contributed to matters that earned Paul, Weiss "FinTech Group of the Year" from Law360 in February and "Litigator of the Week" recognition from The American Lawyer in July. In 2022, Meredith was recognized by Law360 as an MVP in the “Technology” category, named an Insider “Rising Star of the Courtroom,” recognized by the Daily Journal as a “Top Antitrust Lawyer,” and was included in Benchmark Litigation’s “40 & Under Hot List.” In 2021, Bloomberg Law named Meredith an Antitrust Rising Star in its “They’ve Got Next” series, Law360 named her a Rising Star in the “Technology” category, and the Daily Journal recognized her as a “Top 40 Under 40” lawyer. The American Lawyer previously named Meredith a “Litigator of the Week” for a high-stakes trial win on behalf of a large technology company in federal court in Boston. In 2018, Meredith was 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 “Women Leaders in Tech Law.” Meredith is also recognized by Chambers USA in the Antitrust (California) category, by Lawdragon as one of the “500 Leading Litigators in America” and by Benchmark Litigation as a “Future Star.” She was previously named a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers for eight consecutive years.

EXPERIENCE

Meredith has played a key role in several of the most high-profile matters in California in recent years, bringing efficiency, attention to detail and a trial-ready instinct to her cases. Meredith approaches each matter as if it is going to trial by crafting winning strategies from the outset; clients trust her to prepare their most important witnesses to testify.

Meredith’s recent engagements and achievements include:

  • serving as trial counsel for an airline whose acquisition by a horizontal competitor was challenged by the United States Department of Justice under the Clayton Act.
  • securing the dismissal of a putative class action brought against a cryptocurrency exchange platform concerning the listing of an algorithmic stablecoin.
  • securing the dismissal of an SEC lawsuit brought against a cryptocurrency company, its co-founder and its CEO alleging that the defendants had altogether conducted over $2.6 billion in unregistered securities transactions through the sale of a digital asset, including a significant summary judgment victory in which the Southern District of New York held that the sale of a digital asset on public exchanges does not constitute the sale of unregistered securities.
  • serving as co-lead trial counsel for two online pharmacies in a high-stakes defamation and unfair competition dispute with a pharmacy benefit manager.
  • serving as trial counsel for a leading technology company concerning a dispute with a major video game and software developer that asserted antitrust claims related to the mobile app distribution and payment markets.
  • securing the dismissal of a putative antitrust class action brought against a leading technology company in the Northern District of California related to subscription streaming game services.
  • winning a defense victory at trial on behalf of a major technology company in a $750 million unfair competition lawsuit in Boston federal court. The court rejected nearly every one of plaintiffs’ arguments, including all damages claims, delivering a complete defense verdict.
  • securing the favorable settlement of a high-profile trade secrets matter concerning self-driving cars, which resolved after four days of evidence at trial.
  • successfully obtaining summary judgment in favor of an audio technology company in a fraud, tort and statutory securities suit brought in California state court.
  • representing a major software and technology company in various matters concerning intellectual property and contracts, including a major patent and copyright trial in the Northern District of California.
  • winning a complete defense verdict as a member of the trial team that represented a top technology company in a high-profile billion-dollar federal antitrust class action concerning the portable music device industry.
  • securing a favorable outcome as a member of the trial team that represented a Bay Area-based medical device and technology startup in a patent inventorship dispute in the Northern District of California.
  • winning a favorable appellate decision as a member of the appellate team in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, which upheld the trial court’s opinion that established a constitutional right to marry for gay and lesbian citizens in California.

Meredith is a leader in the Bay Area legal community. In 2022, she was selected for a three-year term as a Lawyer Representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference for the Northern District of California. She serves on the Board of the Northern California chapter of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers and of the Justice & Diversity Center of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and sits on the Advisory Board of the East Bay Community Law Center, one of the largest non-profit organizations offering free legal services in the San Francisco Bay Area. Meredith previously served as a Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, where she taught Federal Litigation in a Global Context for three years. She regularly presents on intellectual property and trial practice issues for legal industry, educational and trade groups.

While at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, Meredith served as an extern at the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division in San Francisco. She was Senior Supervising Editor of the California Law Review and received the Thelen, Marrin Prize for Law Journal Writing in 2009. Meredith previously clerked for the Hon. John C. Coughenour of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

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