Gregory Evans

+1-213-892-4488
gevans@milbank.com
 
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Gregory Hinojosa Evans is a partner in Milbank’s Litigation Department.  Greg’s experience includes trials and litigation for numerous branded, Fortune 500 companies, including Steinway Musical Instruments, Nike, Vodafone, 3M, The Sherwin-Williams Company, Ultimate Fighting Championship – UFC, and The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway.  Greg’s litigation and trial experience includes complex business  litigation, securities, trade secret, corporate governance, stock-option vesting, fraud, land use, corporate change-in-control, and major environmental enforcement cases.  During the past two years, Mr. Evans conducted five major environmental estimation trials involving claims in excess of $9 billion.  In a very recent lawsuit against the United States EPA before Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court in Washington, Greg prevailed for his clients under the Freedom of Information Act, obtaining documents which the EPA claimed it did not possess.  These documents proved to be critical to his clients in a different trial under CERCLA.  Greg recently shut down efforts to indict ASARCO by a federal grand jury in Montana on alleged major environmental crimes (click here to view article).  Greg achieved a similar result for The Sherwin-Williams Company following a federal grand jury investigation in California.

Greg has lead clients through many U.S. Department of Justice and state attorneys’ general investigations involving environmental, human rights, labor and securities issues.

As an experienced trial attorney, Mr. Evans has served on the Board of Governors for the Association of Business Trial Lawyers. The American Lawyer named Mr. Evans as one of America’s top 45 lawyers under the age of 45 (click to view article). In 2006, The American Lawyer also named Greg as a “Star Lateral of the Year,” one of only 9 American lawyers receiving this recognition. Greg’s professional moves have been noted by The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Magazine’s California Lawyer selected Greg as one of California’s best or “top” litigators. In January 2005, the Daily Journal published, statewide, an extensive profile of Greg’s background and his practice (click to view article).

Greg has demonstrated, time and again, that he is capable of communicating complicated information effectively and persuasively to judges and juries of all backgrounds and in many different regions of the country.  Greg has obtained either jury verdicts or defense judgments in a RICO case filed as a class action (Sacramento Superior Court), a fraud case filed by multiple parties against one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies (San Francisco Superior Court), two separate stock option vesting cases (Orange County, California), a contract indemnity case (U.S. District Court, Seattle) and two separate business discrimination cases filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and in New York.  Although some of these cases were appealed, they have all been affirmed.

Greg is experienced in trials and litigation which present racial, economic, social, community, labor and other sensitive issues as a part of the underlying case.  Many of Greg’s cases generate government or media interest and he is trained and experienced to handle the political and media facets to higher profile litigation.  When helpful to a client’s case, and when requested, Greg has appeared on various national and local news shows and in newspapers.  Greg has also testified and prepared clients for testimony before several U.S. congressional committees and many state and federal regulatory agencies.

The following are some of his more notable engagements:

• Vodafone Group. While serving as primary U.S. outside litigation counsel for Vodafone Group, Greg achieved jury defense verdicts, arbitration awards and bench trial judgments for Vodafone in cases involving trade secret misappropriation, technology-related contract disputes including cross-boarder issues, joint venture disputes, corporate change in control and stock option vesting.

• 3M Corporation. In a class-certified action entitled Common Cause v. 3M Corporation, a case alleging that certain 3M products exposed consumers and handlers of certain products to an increased risk of cancer, Mr. Evans obtained a defense judgment for 3M in the Los Angeles Superior Court.

• The Sherwin-Williams Company. Mr. Evans obtained numerous dismissals of civil and criminal complaints against Sherwin-Williams for alleged environmental damages. Most recently, Greg successfully represented Sherwin-Williams in a wide-scale California Attorney General’s investigation, and related litigation, which ended in complete abandonment of all claims against the company, no finding of fault, no payment of fine or any other adverse consequence. In a recent Federal Grand Jury proceeding commenced in the Central District of California, Greg led The Sherwin-Williams Company, the target of that investigation, to an outcome that resulted in no payment of any fine, penalty or settlement.

• The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF). Beginning in 1990, Greg successfully represented BNSF in jury and bench trials. Greg defeated a land use and community wide class-action seeking to prevent the railroad’s expansion and merger. This result was affirmed on appeal. Greg coordinated and directed BNSF’s response to the Cajon Pass Derailment, one of the largest freight train accidents in U.S. history. As a leader of response and defense activities, Greg successfully represented the company through a grand jury investigation (without indictment). Greg also defeated each of the class-action lawsuits alleging toxic tort and environmental harms from the Cajon Pass catastrophe. Representing BNSF and Amtrak, Greg also obtained a defense verdict for both railroads in claims of catastrophic damages caused by the railroads near Los Angeles’ Union Station.

• Nike, Inc. Greg has represented Nike in high-profile litigation where a negative outcome could impact the Nike brand adversely. Recently, Greg defeated on summary judgment two major, unrelated business discrimination cases filed in U.S. District Court (Los Angeles and New York). Greg also recently knocked out a significant consumer class action case for Nike, before class certification.

• Station Casinos. Greg recently defeated land use litigation brought to gain control of commercial property to be used for a casino and supporting commercial development in California’s Central Valley.

• Mendoza, et al. v. State of California, et al. In this California state constitutional powers litigation, Greg represented the Los Angeles Unified School District (“LAUSD”), in cooperation with other law firms, to defeat an effort by the Mayor of Los Angeles to control LAUSD schools. The trial court decided this case in favor of LAUSD, the League of Women Voters and Congresswoman Diane Watson. This decision was later upheld on appeal (3-0).

• Americas Smelting and Refining Corporation, Incorporated (ASARCO Inc.). Greg currently serves ASARCO Inc. as its primary outside counsel on environmental claims made by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. EPA, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, and numerous state attorneys general relating to ASARCO’s operation of mining, smelting and refining businesses over the past 100 years in 30 different states.

Greg is an active participant in community affairs and pro bono activities. Greg serves on the national board of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), as well as the Board of Directors for the Los Angeles County Bar Foundation. He is on the Board of Trustees for Catholic Charities of Los Angeles and is a member of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. Greg is a Board Member of the Public Counsel Law Center. Greg served in 2008 and 2009 as an instructor for the Constitutional Rights Foundation’s Youth Moot Court Competition. He is a member of the Mexican American Bar Association. Greg has maintained involvement with Notre Dame since graduation, including active membership in the Thomas More Society.

Before joining Milbank, Greg completed a Fellowship with the U.S. Department of Justice and served later as Deputy Counsel to the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, DC. For his pro bono services to the poor, Greg was honored by the State Bar of California and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Greg has several published articles on public policy, legislation and society. Greg received his J.D. from the University of Notre Dame School of Law where he was a named Thomas J. White Scholar. Greg served as Research Editor for Notre Dame Law School’s Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy. Greg was awarded Notre Dame’s Dean David T. Link Award for Social Justice upon graduating in 1989. He received a Master’s Degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1986, and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Southern California in 1984. Greg is fluent in Spanish. He and his wife Diane have four children. They reside in San Marino, California.

Greg is a member of the State Bar of California and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Seventh and Ninth Circuits, all U.S. District Courts in California, the Washington Supreme Court, and the United States Supreme Court.