Theane Evangelis Kapur

Lisa Holton

2012-05-31 04:30:10 PM

Theane Evangelis Kapur, 35, partner

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

Kapur was part of the Los Angeles-based team that persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court last June to reverse certification of the largest employment class action in history. Kapur was the principal drafter of the petition for a writ of certiorari and the merits briefing in Wal-Mart v. Dukes. The 2003 New York University School of Law graduate specializes in appellate and constitutional law, class actions and media and entertainment. Kapur also was a member of the team representing two gay couples in Perry v. Brown, the first federal constitutional challenge to Proposition 8. The district court held in 2010 that Prop 8 was unconstitutional under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses; the Ninth Circuit affirmed on Feb. 7. Since drafting the initial complaint, Kapur has been a lead writer on the briefing in the district court and the Ninth Circuit. Kapur joined Gibson Dunn after serving as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and as an associate with entertainment boutique Ziffren Brittenham. Before clerking for O'Connor, she was a law clerk to Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski. She serves on the board of the California Women's Law Center and on the advisory board of the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival.

What word best describes you?

Committed.

What was your toughest moment in law school or as a lawyer?

Handling a last-minute death row appeal during my clerkship for Justice O'Connor.

What kind of law would you least like to practice?

Capital defense.

If you could take a year off, what would you do?

Join efforts to help Greece recover from the economic crisis.

Name a guilty pleasure.

Shoes.

What do you do for stress relief?

Play with my 14-month-old son.

Name a trial or deal you wish you could have worked on, and why.

I wish I could have been a part of the struggle for gender equality through cases such as U.S. v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 1515 (1996), which struck down Virginia Military Institute's male-only admissions policy.