Ryan C. Stewart is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He is a member of the firm’s Litigation Department and Labor & Employment Practice Group.
Ryan has represented clients in federal and state courts across the country at both the trial court and appellate levels, as well as in arbitration, agency, and administrative proceedings. He has experience representing employers in both single plaintiff and class action litigations across a wide range of labor and employment matters, including those involving federal and state wage-and-hour laws, Title VII and other federal and state discrimination laws, disability and accommodation laws, wrongful termination, whistleblower protection statutes, non-competition and non-solicitation agreements, unfair labor practices, immigration law and compliance, and executive employment disputes. Ryan also has experience representing clients in disputes involving high-profile personal tort offenses. He is an accomplished brief writer and has significant experience in trial proceedings, including direct examination of fact witnesses in a National Labor Relations Board proceeding.
In addition to his litigation experience, a substantial portion of his practice involves advising employers on an extensive variety of employment-related issues, including wage-and-hour compliance, joint employment status, independent contractor status, executive separations and related agreements, employee terminations, confidentiality and other employment-related contractual agreements, enforcement of restrictive covenants, employee handbooks and policies, including those related to sexual harassment complaints, affirmative action and other regulatory compliance, and sensitive workplace investigations. Ryan has advised employers regarding pay equity audits, analysis, and remediation efforts. He also has experience advising clients regarding interactions with the government, including the Department of Labor and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Ryan was named a 2024 “Rising Star” in the Employment category by Law360, recognizing him as an attorney “whose legal accomplishments belie their age.” Benchmark Litigation US also named him to its 2024 “40 & Under” list of “top emerging talent in litigation.”
Representative engagements include:
- Secured defense judgments denying all claims in three wage-and-hour arbitrations on behalf of Lowe’s Home Centers, LLC in three arbitrations.
- Successfully represented Enterprise Holdings, Inc. in a Rule 23 class action alleging violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) (Wordlaw v. Enterprise Holdings, Inc. et al. (N.D. Ill.) and obtained dismissal with prejudice of nine individual BIPA complaints filed by settlement opt-outs;
- Secured dismissal on the pleadings of discrimination and harassment claims brought by former employee and secured affirmance of the dismissal on appeal. (Sousa v. Amazon.com, Inc. (D. Del.));
- Secured summary judgment victories and won Second Circuit appeal for Credico (USA) LLC in a pair of wage-and-hour nationwide class actions involving misclassification claims on grounds that the workers were exempt outside salespersons and Credico did not jointly employ plaintiffs with its subcontractors (Vasto v. Credico (USA) LLC, et al. (S.D.N.Y. 2017, 2d Cir. 2019); Martin v. Assurance Wireless et al. (S.D.N.Y. 2017));
- Secured dismissal of all opt-in wage-hour claims against Enterprise Holdings, Inc. in a nationwide overtime class and collective action brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Massachusetts Wage Act, and currently representing Enterprise Holdings with respect to the second amended complaint (Bah v. Enterprise Holdings, Inc. et al. (D. Mass.));
- Secured a significant trial win for Cablevision in a long-running and highly-publicized labor union dispute with the Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO (CWA). Following a 21-day trial before an NLRB administrative law judge, prevailed on key unfair labor practice charges brought by the NLRB Regional Director on behalf of the CWA against Cablevision (CSC Holdings, LLC and Cablevision Systems, New York City Corp. (NLRB 2016));
- Successfully represented Enterprise Holdings, Inc. in a highly-publicized, nationwide Rule 23 class action alleging WARN Act violations related to Covid-19 layoffs (Benson v. Enterprise Holdings, Inc. et al. (M.D. Fla.));
- Represented and helped obtain favorable settlement for an applied technology company in a lawsuit brought by a former executive alleging disability discrimination, retaliation, and defamation;
- Successfully represented Amazon.com in two lawsuits filed by a former employee alleging discrimination on the basis of age and religion and wage-hour violations on a class-wide basis, including successfully briefing a pre-discovery motion to strike the wage-hour class claims and disqualify class counsel in the class action (Colby v. Amazon.com, Inc. (Wash. Super. Ct.));
- Represented Nike and secured a confidential settlement following favorable rulings in misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, and business tort litigation involving Adidas and three former Nike footwear designers (Nike, Inc. v. Dekovic, et al. (Or. 2014));
- Successfully represented Family Dollar Stores, Inc. in nationwide class action involving gender discrimination and Equal Pay Act claims (Scott v. Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (W.D.N.C.));
- Obtained summary judgment for Walmart.com in lawsuit filed by a former employee alleging whistleblower retaliation and disability discrimination (Huynh v. Walmart Stores, Inc. (N.D. Cal.));
- Defeated conditional certification and secured summary judgment victory for national restaurant chain in putative nationwide wage-hour collective action (Rafferty v. Denny’s (S.D. Fla.));
- Represented Vox Media, Inc. in nationwide wage-and-hour class actions alleging that SB Nation Site Managers are misclassified as independent contractors (Bradley v. Vox Media, Inc. (D.D.C.); Spruill v. Vox Media, Inc. (D.D.C.));
- Advised Fortune 500 company regarding interactions with Department of Labor relating to ERISA compliance and prohibited transaction exemptions; and
- Advised Fortune 150 company regarding nationwide pay equity audit and analysis.
Ryan has also published articles relating to employment law, including an article in Law360’s Expert Analysis series regarding joint employment status under the FLSA and an article regarding the employment-related aspects of the California Immigrant Worker Protection Act.
He earned his law degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School. At Harvard, he received The Dean’s Award for Community Leadership. Prior to attending law school, Ryan graduated cum laude from Vanderbilt University with High Honors in Economics and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science.
Ryan is a member of the Florida, Maryland, and District of Columbia bars.
Capabilities
Credentials
Education:
- Harvard University - 2014 Juris Doctor
- Vanderbilt University - 2010 Bachelor of Arts
Admissions:
- District of Columbia Bar
- Florida Bar
- Maryland Bar