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With attorney fees, Gibson Dunn must pay over $725K to ex-partner who had earned $60M

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 19, 2024, 9:57 am CDT

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has agreed to pay a former partner more than $140,000 in attorney fees unless the amount is overturned in an appeal of his much higher arbitration award.

Former partner Mark A. Perry, who left Gibson Dunn to co-chair the appellate practice at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, has been awarded more than $725,000 in all: $557,371 in retirement benefits, $27,502 in interest and $140,678 in attorney fees.

Law360 and Reuters have coverage of the Sept. 13 order by Judge Kevin C. Brazile of Los Angeles, which granted attorney fees based on the parties’ stipulation.

Perry left Gibson Dunn in 2022 after spending nearly 28 years at the law firm.

The fee award follows an arbitrator’s determination that Perry was entitled to retirement payments when he stops competing with Gibson Dunn. The firm had maintained that Perry wasn’t entitled to retirement payments because he had resigned, rather than retired.

Even if Perry was retired, Gibson Dunn said, he wasn’t entitled to retirement payments under the partnership agreement because he competed with Gibson Dunn.

Brazile confirmed the arbitration award in a June decision. He ruled for the firm, however, in a motion to seal portions of the partnership agreement and other sensitive information. But Brazile said there was no basis to seal “supposed ‘private’ information about Perry,” including his career earnings.

The earnings amounted to $60 million. Perry also had a “lucrative” 401(k), Brazile said.

Gibson Dunn has filed notice of appeal, Law360 reports.