Theodore J. Boutrous Jr.

Two of Boutrous' biggest cases have been on his agenda for years.

Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., a gender discrimination class action by 1.6 million female Wal-Mart employees, began in 2000 and took a roller coaster path from the Northern District of California, where the class was certified, to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which first agreed with the certification order, 2-1, and then reversed it, 6-5.

Boutrous successfully argued for Wal-Mart before the U.S. Supreme Court, which unanimously reversed certification in June 2011. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. v. Dukes, 131 S.Ct. 2541 (2011).

And now Dukes is back as plaintiffs struggle in district court to revive the suit on a smaller scale. Boutrous, 51, is again in the courtroom opposing them.

Meanwhile, the landmark Proposition 8 civil rights case, in litigation since voters passed the initiative in 2008, is currently before the high court as California's gay marriage ban's proponents petition the justices to grant review and reverse the 9th Circuit's decision striking down the law as unconstitutional. Boutrous remains a key member of the anti-Prop. 8 trial team.

Over the past year, he also helped Chevron Corp. fight off an $18 billion pollution lawsuit judgment from an Ecuadorian court. Chevron's argument that the South American judicial process was marred by fraud, politics and misconduct led the plaintiffs to move the case to Canada. Once there, plaintiffs petitioned Canadian judges to let them seize Chevron's northern assets to satisfy the judgment.

Boutrous finds the energy to keep up with it all in the satisfaction he takes from the law. "My father was a lawyer and my greatest inspiration," he said. "In my early years in college, I wanted to be a writer of fiction and poetry, but when I took a class on the U.S. Supreme Court I became fascinated with the law and how it intersects with and affects every aspect of our lives. And that's when I knew for sure I wanted to be a lawyer."

The range of the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP partner's interests has landed him on the firm's appellate and constitutional law, media and entertainment, crisis management and transnational litigation and foreign judgments groups.

Official courtroom duties apparently aren't enough. In March, Boutrous debated the Affordable Care Act with Stanford Law School's Kathleen Sullivan at a moot court event in Los Angeles.

He exhibited a litigator's knack for taking sides. "I argued the anti-Obamacare position, although that wasn't necessarily my personal view," he said later. "It was very fun."

- JOHN ROEMER