Catherine A. Conway

Conway, the co-chair of Gibson Dunn's firmwide labor and employment practice group, said the coronavirus lockdown is likely to remain in place for awhile.

"We're going to work remotely for another couple of months," she said in late June. "It's not necessarily getting better. I work at my kitchen table, and we're all going stir crazy, but we're fooling ourselves if we think it's almost over."

Conway's practice focuses on complex employment litigation with an emphasis on wage and hour litigation trials. She is also a key advisor to boards of directors in numerous confidential investigations. In the last year there have been more than half a dozen of such probes in the wake of sexual harassment claims.

She represents the regents of the University of California in a high-profile suit involving an ex-UCLA gynecologist, James Heaps, accused of sexual assault and sexual harassment. And she represents USC in the cascade of sexual misconduct complaints regarding that school's George Tyndall, also a gynecologist.

"I tend to work the larger cases, but those are the ones that keep me up at night," Conway said. "Due to the sensitivity of these claims, we are not doing remote depositions." USC retained Conway as lead counsel to oversee the Tyndall litigation in December 2019. A settlement of $215 million gained final approval in February 2020. In re: USC Student Health Center Litigation, 2:18-cv-04258 (C.D. Cal., filed April 20, 2018).

The Heaps cases at UCLA--more than 100 individual filings--are being compiled into a master complaint, she said, to be lodged in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

"The checks are going out in the USC settlement," Conway said. "Both schools have taken prompt remedial action. USC has a dynamic new president with very forward-thinking views attuned to students' needs. I have long been an advocate for changing policies in real time--don't wait for the litigation. Both schools have done that."

Conway is lead counsel for the video game and e-sports company Riot Games in a potential class action and four individual actions brought by female employees alleging harassment, discrimination and retaliation following the publication of an article accusing the company of condoning a culture of sexism. The complaints assert violations of California's Equal Pay Act and discrimination. A settlement announced earlier has not been approved, Conway said. "The Department of Fair Employment and Housing investigated and called for $400 million, which was ridiculous. We authorized $10 million as fair and reasonable." McCracken v. Riot Games Inc., 18STCV03957 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Nov. 6, 2018).

She said the case will proceed. "You don't hire Gibson Dunn in you're not willing to litigate."

-- John Roemer