Davida Brook 

Davida Brook has built a resume that has garnered her recognition among her peers as one of California’s top trial lawyers. As partner of Susman Godfrey LLP, she focuses her practice on high-stakes commercial litigation that range from two-part business and employment disputes to complex, multiparty and class action cases involving securities, contracts and intellectual property law.

She has successfully represented many big-name clients, such as Beats Electronics headphones designer Steven Lamar and billionaire investor Louis Bacon, against industry giants such as Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, Peter Nygard and Snapchat.

Earlier this year, Brook and her co-lead counsel secured a $787.5 million settlement on behalf of Dominion Voting System in a defamation lawsuit against Fox News Network.

The lawsuit, which Brook and her team filed for $1.6 billion in 2021, alleged that the news network made false statements that Dominion’s system rigged the 2020 presidential election. US Dominion Inc. et al. V. Fox News Network LLC, N21C-03-257 (Del. Super. Ct., filed Dec. 16, 2021).

“To have the opportunity to defend the truth and defend the First Amendment on an issue in an area that, I think, is important to many Americans, let alone to my client, was truly just the privilege of my career,” Brook said.

On behalf of Dominion, she is currently pursuing other similar defamation claims against Fox and other media entities, such as Newsmax, as well as political figures, such as former President Donald J. Trump and attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.

In 2021, Brook and her team filed a class action against Pornhub parent company, MindGeek.

The complaint alleged that MindGeek violated federal sex trafficking and child pornography laws by knowingly posting, enabling the posting of, and profiting from thousands of pornographic videos featuring minors under the age of 18. Jane Doe v. MindGeek USA Incorporated et al., 8:2021-CV-00338, (C.D., Cal., filed Dec. 2, 2021).

A few weeks later, Brooks filed a similar lawsuit against Reddit, citing the same allegations.

A U.S. District Judge denied in substantial part the motion to dismiss filed by MindGeek, securing a win for Brook’s clients. “We’re in the throes of discovery for this case right now … and we’ll be moving for class certification later this year.”

—Devon Belcher