Jessica Valenzuela is a partner in the Palo Alto office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and a member of the Securities Litigation Practice Group. Ms. Valenzuela's practice focuses on securities, corporate governance and other complex business litigation, including the defense of securities class actions, derivative suits and M&A-related class actions. In addition to representing clients in state and federal courts, she also represents companies, boards and special committees in government and internal investigations and counsels public and private companies and their directors and officers about a wide range of issues relating to corporate governance, insider trading, disclosure obligations, director and executive compensation matters and litigation risk and strategy.
Ms. Valenzuela has also litigated commercial disputes in international and domestic arbitrations. Her clients have included companies and individuals in the hardware, software, semiconductor, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, finance, internet and digital-media industries.
Ms. Valenzuela is ranked among the leading Securities Litigation practitioners in California by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. She is recognized by The Best Lawyers in America® for her expertise in Commercial Litigation and Litigation Securities (2023-2025). Ms. Valenzuela has been named to The Daily Journal’s list of “Top Women Lawyers” and The Recorder’s “Women Leaders in Tech Law.” LMG Life Sciences 2022 acknowledged Ms. Valenzuela as a "Life Sciences Star." She was also recognized as a Benchmark Litigation “Future Star,” to the Lawyers of Color “Hot List” and Silicon Valley Latino’s “40 Under 40 Latinos2Watch.” In 2014, she was a Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellow.
Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Ms. Valenzuela was a partner at Cooley LLP.
Ms. Valenzuela graduated from Stanford Law School with distinction in 2002. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University in 1999, where she graduated with departmental honors.
Recent matters include:*
- Filed a successful motion to dismiss a complaint on behalf of Fastly Inc. that alleged violations of federal securities laws against the company and two executive officers, and obtained voluntary dismissal of derivative lawsuits based on the same allegations.
- Obtained dismissal of two complaints filed against Overstock.com and certain officers alleging that they violated federal securities laws.
- Filed a successful motion to dismiss a complaint alleging violations of federal securities laws on behalf of Stitch Fix, Inc.
- Defended Twitter Inc. and two former officers in a class action lawsuit alleging violations of federal securities laws.
- Secured rare dismissal of claims brought under the Securities Act of 1933 in California state court filed against Pure Storage alleging that the company made false and misleading statements in the prospectus filed in connection with its IPO.
- Obtained dismissal with prejudice of a derivative lawsuit filed against publicly-traded pharmaceutical company alleging that the company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act.
- Obtained orders granting motions to dismiss multiple shareholder derivative lawsuits filed against Orexigen Therapeutics challenging executive stock option awards.
- Represented special committee of publicly-traded utilities company in internal investigation into alleged improper executive stock option awards.
- Represented publicly-traded software company in internal investigation in response to whistleblower allegations of improper recognition of revenue.
- Secured the dismissal of a series of derivative lawsuits against eBay based on allegations that the company’s directors breached their fiduciary duties related to strategic transactions and hiring practices.
- Represented Blurb, Inc. against copyright infringement claims filed on behalf of the monkey who purportedly snapped the infamous “Monkey Selfie.”
- Obtained a complete dismissal of a class action complaint filed against XOMA Corporation and certain of its officers alleging violations of federal securities laws, and obtained voluntary dismissal of derivative lawsuits based on the same allegations.
- Negotiated favorable settlements of federal securities class actions and federal and state derivative actions on behalf of a former director and audit-committee chair of a Chinese company accused of accounting fraud that entered the US capital markets through a reverse-merger.
*Includes representations prior to Ms. Valenzuela’s association with Gibson Dunn.
Capabilities
- Securities Litigation
- Litigation
- Securities Enforcement
- Technology Litigation
- White Collar Defense and Investigations
Credentials
Education:
- Stanford University - 2002 Juris Doctor
- Stanford University - 1999 Bachelor of Arts
Admissions:
- California Bar