James L. Hallowell is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s New York office. Mr. Hallowell is a member of Gibson Dunn’s Litigation Practice Group.
Mr. Hallowell has extensive experience in business and commercial litigation matters, with an emphasis on securities litigation, mergers and acquisitions and corporate control litigation, antitrust, government investigations, and insurance and reinsurance litigation and arbitration.
In corporate control litigation, Mr. Hallowell has represented companies, shareholders, directors and underwriters across a range of industries. Most recently, Mr. Hallowell represented Corvex Management and Related Fund Management in litigation and arbitration regarding their investment in CommonWealth REIT, a multi-billion dollar, publicly traded real estate investment trust. After a two-week arbitration that resulted in the invalidation of defensive bylaws adopted by CommonWealth, Corvex and Related succeeded in a consent solicitation to remove the entire CommonWealth Board of Trustees, and convinced shareholders to elect a new independent slate of trustees. Mr. Hallowell’s additional corporate control representations include matters for corporations such as iBasis, Inc. and Tenet Healthcare Corporation, and financial advisors such as Goldman Sachs, UBS, Oppenheimer & Co., Centerview Partners and Moelis & Company.
In antitrust matters, Mr. Hallowell has served as counsel to the Title Insurance Rate Service Association, Inc. (TIRSA), an insurance rating board licensed by the New York State Insurance Department, and to corporations such as Aetna, Intel and Micron. Mr. Hallowell represented TIRSA in all aspects of its successful defense of class action lawsuits alleging that New York title insurers violated the Sherman Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and related state statutes in providing title insurance. Plaintiffs’ claims were dismissed in New York federal court, and the dismissal was affirmed by the Second Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.
Mr. Hallowell has represented issuers and underwriters in securities class action matters, including Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, FINOVA and Edison Schools. He has also represented financial institutions, insurers and individuals in government investigations, related criminal prosecutions and private litigation.
Mr. Hallowell volunteers his time to pro bono matters. In 2011 Mr. Hallowell received a Commitment to Justice award from inMotion, a leading New York City organization providing free legal services to low-income women, including actions of abuse. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Fund for Modern Courts, an independent, statewide court reform organization committed to improving the judicial system for all New Yorkers.
