Irell’s Securities Litigation Chair Heads to Gibson Dunn (1)

Irell & Manella has lost securities litigation practice chair and executive committee member Craig Varnen to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in the latest major lateral departure from the high-end litigation boutique.

Varnen, who also served as vice chair of Irell’s litigation group and spent more than two decades at the firm, will join Gibson Dunn in Los Angeles.

Varnen first joined Irell in 1994 after clerking at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Since then he’s built a practice focused on representing companies in federal and state securities class actions, derivative actions and regulatory proceedings relating to ...