Nancy E. Hart is an associate in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. She is a member of Gibson Dunn’s Litigation Practice Group.

Ms. Hart focuses largely on complex business litigation, with particular focus in consumer class action litigation, corporate control contests, and shareholder actions alleging breaches of fiduciary duties. Ms. Hart had significant experience as the lead associate in the defense of several consumer class actions and corporate control contests, including representation of Chrysler LLC, Dow Jones & Company and a major retailer. She has also acted as the lead associate in helping secure several appellate victories for clients regarding a wide variety of contractual disputes.

Ms. Hart graduated magna cum laude from Boston College Law School in 2003 and was elected to the Order of the Coif. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Vassar College in 1998. Ms. Hart is admitted to practice in the State of New York and the State of Texas and before the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

Ms. Hart is a member of the American Bar Association and serves on the Firm’s Pro Bono and Community Affairs Committees as special liaison to the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, which serves families confronting poverty and homelessness by supporting their efforts to achieve stability and realize their individual potential.

Representative Matters:

Dow Jones & Company, Inc.: Lead associate in matter successfully defending Dow Jones in a consumer class action in the Southern District of New York brought on behalf of a putative nationwide class of annual WSJ.com subscribers regarding access to Barron’s Online; favorable decision affirmed on appeal by the Second Circuit.
Hudson River Park Trust: Lead associate in matter that resulted in the dismissal of Chelsea Piers, L.P.’s $100 million lawsuit against the Hudson River Park Trust, a public benefit corporation, which sought to shift the burden of commercial pier repairs to the State, or to include Chelsea Piers in the Trust’s plan to redevelop certain piers as a public park. After extensive oral argument, the trial court held that Chelsea Piers’s suit was time-barred under the parties’ 1994 lease agreement; the the Appellate Division, First Department unanimously affirmed the trial court’s 2012 order dismissing Chelsea Piers’ complaint and further held the claims dismissed on additional grounds.
Textron: Lead associate in representation of a Textron subsidiary in a bankruptcy adversary proceeding brought by the Trustee of Fair Finance Corp., whose former owners and officers were found guilty of operating a Ponzi scheme. The Trustee sought over $1 billion in damages against the Textron subsidiary. Won complete dismissal of all claims brought by the Trustee against our client at the pleadings phase.
Confidential Client: One of the lead associates involved in obtaining preliminary injunction in Delaware Chancery Court preventing former business partner of a leading international insurance organization from using trade secrets and confidential information. Key victory paved the way to successful resolution for client.
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey: Lead associate in representation of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in litigation in the Southern District of New York brought by two local Automobile Associations challenging recent Port Authority toll increases on statutory and constitutional grounds.
Confidential Client: Lead associate involved in obtaining summary judgment on behalf of Am Law 15 law firm in a legal malpractice suit brought by a large accounting firm.
iBasis: One of the lead associates in representation of iBasis Inc. in connection with an all-cash, all-shares tender offer made by its majority shareholder Koninldijke KPN N.V. (“KPN”) for all of the outstanding shares of iBasis. Gibson Dunn litigated the case through trial, but before the Delaware Chancery Court issued a ruling, the case settled after KPN agreed to increase its tender offer price to $3.00 per share. The offer price represented a 130.8% premium for shareholders over the closing price of iBasis shares on the last trading day prior to the announcement of KPN’s tender offer, and nearly a 100% increase from KPN’s initial offer price of $1.55 per share.