Debra Wong Yang

Yang isn’t a person who steers clear of intense and difficult situations. As co-chair of Gibson Dunn’s Crisis Management Group, she leads an army of lawyers regularly called upon to sort out some of the nation’s most complicated, and often anguishing, problems.

When several women accused its general director, conductor and singer Plácido Domingo of sexual harassment last month, the Los Angeles Opera turned to Yang to investigate the matter.

The University of Southern California earlier this year hired her to lead an internal investigation and respond to litigation arising from the indictment of parents and coaches who paid bribes to get their children admitted into college. And in 2017 when Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito, dean of USC’s Keck School of Medicine, was accused of misconduct, the university tapped Yang to investigate.

She also represented MGM Resorts International in response to the Oct. 1, 2017 shooting at its Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

The board of directors of Johnson & Johnson also hired Yang to conduct an investigation in response to shareholder complaints regarding talcum powder litigation.

A former U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, Yang initially built a traditional practice focused on white collar defense and internal corporate investigations.

But her partners and clients noticed in Yang a canny ability to spot problems before they arose and to sort through some of the most complicated issues that plague society.

“You have a much broader skill set,” she recalled a partner telling her.

“You have prophetic qualities,” a client said.

Yang said her work as a state court judge and as a U.S. attorney were good training for “looking for the high and low watermarks” in a situation, for “understanding the complexity around issues” “and the human qualities” that impact every situation.

“What I enjoy is the challenges that face the corporation,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what the underlying issue is.”

— David Houston