Gibson Dunn history

In fact, Gordon Bakken's study of the late 19th-century California bar relied on a sample of 1,168 bar members admitted through 1900; half of those practiced in San Francisco or Los Angeles.

The two seasoned lawyers formed their own partnership that in 1903 merged with Bicknell, Gibson & Trask.

After Bicknell retired in 1907, the firm continued to serve his oil clients, including the Amalgamated, Union, and Akron oil companies.

Attorneys Dunn and Crutcher, already directors for Huntington's Pacific Light & Power Company, in 1912 filed the incorporation papers when Huntington started the San Joaquin and Eastern Railroad.

A 1926 map found in Wilson's book showed the extent of the Pacific Electric Railway that Henry Huntington had built with legal advice from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

1964: Firm starts an office in Irvine, Orange County.

1967: Firm establishes a Paris office, its first outside the United States.

Starting in December 1968, several companies and the federal government filed antitrust lawsuits against IBM that would take over a decade to finally resolve.

1976: San Diego office is started, closed later.

However, the legal profession itself had changed after the United States Supreme Court in its 1977 Bates decision said that professional associations could not restrict advertising because it violated First Amendment rights to free speech.

1984: Dallas office is opened.

By 1998 some defendants, including Albertson's and Safeway, had settled with the plaintiffs represented by attorney Donald Driscoll, but Lucky Stores continued to fight the charges.