Meredith R. Dearborn

Litigation

San Francisco

Meredith R. Dearborn is a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where she specializes in high-stakes commercial litigation for technology companies in cases involving antitrust, intellectual property, securities and other legal issues.

She joined the firm in 2020 after a decade at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP and a stint teaching federal litigation at Stanford Law School. "It is all fascinating work," Dearborn said. "There is no better time to be a lawyer, as the law adapts to emerging technologies. I get to try to untie these knotty problems."

A recent focus involves the cryptocurrency industry. "It's a bit of uncharted legal territory," Dearborn said. In July 2023, Dearborn won a first-of-its-kind summary judgment ruling that the sale of digital assets on public exchanges doesn't constitute the sale of unregistered securities.

To achieve that breakthrough ruling, she co-led Paul Weiss' representation of Ripple Labs Inc.'s co-founder, Chris Larsen, in a novel, closely-watched effort by the Securities and Exchange Commission to hold the company liable for selling unregistered securities. The government alleged that the company sold more than $1.3 billion worth of XRP -- one of the world's largest cryptocurrencies -- without registering the offerings with the SEC and that Larson and another Ripple executive themselves sold more than $600 million worth of XRP. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Ripple Labs Inc. et al., 1:20-cv-10832 (S.D. N.Y., filed Dec. 23, 2020).

"The SEC was trying to apply a Supreme Court case from 1946 to an industry that could hardly have been imagined back then," Dearborn said.

In October 2023, the SEC filed for an exceptionally rare voluntary dismissal with prejudice of several remaining aiding-and-abetting claims against Larsen.

"It was a watershed moment for the industry," Dearborn said. "A really important precedent."

In January 2023, Dearborn helped secure a major victory for Uber Technologies, Inc., crafting key parts of the strategy that led to Uber winning a challenge to a New York City rule that would have drastically changed the way driver pay was calculated and would have cost Uber up to $23 million per month. Uber USA LLC v. New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission, 160451/2022 (N.Y. County S. Ct., filed Dec. 9, 2022).

Following oral argument, the judge immediately ruled from the bench for Uber, finding the rule arbitrary and capricious.

"A great day for Uber," Dearborn said.

She's also a core member of Google LLC's trial team in the blockbuster federal antitrust case seeking to break up its digital advertising business. U.S. v. Google LLC, 1:23-cv-00108 (E.D. Va., filed Jan. 24, 2023).

That case is set for trial in September. "I am never bored, never once," Dearborn said.

-- John Roemer