Daniel C. Girard
Partner
- 415.981.4800
- dcg@girardgibbs.com
- DOWNLOAD VCARD
- Education
- J.D., University of California at Davis School of Law, 1984
Editor, Law Review - B.A., Cornell University, 1979
- Admissions
- California;
- United States Supreme Court;
- United States Court of Appeals for the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth and Ninth Circuits;
- United States District Court for the Northern, Central, Eastern and Southern Districts of California, District of Colorado
- Memberships
- United States Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules;
- American Law Institute;
- Past Chair of the American Bar Association, Business Law Section Subcommittee on Class Actions;
- Co-Chair of the Business and Corporate Litigation Committee’s Task Force on Litigation Reform and Rule Revision;
- Vice-Chair of the Business and Corporate Litigation Committee
Daniel C. Girard serves as the firm’s managing partner and coordinates the prosecution of various securities, antitrust and consumer legal matters handled by the firm.
He has successfully prosecuted over 75 class action matters and served in leadership positions in a number of precedent-setting cases. Some of the cases in which Mr. Girard served as lead counsel include In re American Express Financial Advisors Securities Litigation, ($100 million settlement), In re Prison Realty Securities Litigation, ($104 million settlement), In re i2 Technologies Securities Litigation, ($88 million settlement), and In re MCI Non-Subscriber Rates Litigation, ($90 million). He served as a member of the Executive Committee in the Natural Gas Antitrust Cases I, II, III and IV, antitrust litigation against numerous natural gas companies for manipulating the market for natural gas in California. The Natural Gas litigation resulted in total settlements of nearly $160 million. Mr. Girard also represented the California State Teachers Retirement System in litigation in a non-class securities action against Qwest Communications, Inc. and outside auditor Arthur Andersen, resulting in a recovery of $45 million for CalSTRS.
Mr. Girard currently serves as lead counsel in the In re Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc Securities Litigation, representing investors who held the company’s Non-cumulative Dollar Preference Shares (preferred share group). He also serves as lead counsel in the In re SLM Corporation Securities Litigation, representing purchasers of SLM Corp. stock (commonly known as Sallie Mae). He is a member of the executive committee charged with managing In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Securities and ERISA Litigation, multidistrict proceedings arising out of the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc., the largest bankruptcy in United States history. Mr. Girard serves as lead counsel in actions brought against UBS, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Wachovia and others on behalf of purchasers of auction rate securities. He represents Nashville country music publisher Cal IV Entertainment LLC in copyright litigation against YouTube and Google, Inc. He also represents Allianz of America, Inc., Fireman’s Fund and other private institutional investors in litigation arising out of their investments in Winstar Communications, Inc., and serves as lead counsel in the H&R Block Express IRA Litigation. Mr. Girard also advises institutional investors in the United States and Europe on securities litigation matters.
Mr. Girard was appointed by Chief Justice Rehnquist in 2004 and re-appointed by Chief Justice Roberts in 2007 to the Federal Civil Rules Advisory Committee, where he has participated in the Committee’s recent drafting of amendments governing electronic discovery and consideration of possible changes to the Rules governing summary judgment and expert discovery. He is a member of the American Law Institute. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, a national, non-partisan organization dedicated to improving the process and culture of the civil justice system.
Mr. Girard is a member of the Business Law Section and currently serves as Section’s representative on the Task Force on Federal Preemption. He is past Chair of the American Bar Association Business Law Section Subcommittee on Class Actions, Co-Chair of the Business and Corporate Litigation Committee’s Task Force on Litigation Reform and Rule Revision, and Vice-Chair of the Business and Corporate Litigation Committee. He has served as a guest lecturer on class actions and complex litigation at the UC Davis Law School, UC Berkeley (Boalt Hall), UC Hastings College of the Law, and Stanford Law School.
Mr. Girard was honored as a Northern California Super Lawyer in 2007, 2008 and 2009 by Law & Politics Magazine, where he was recognized in the top 5-percent of attorneys practicing in Northern California. He served as a member of the Board of Trustees of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Day School in San Mateo, California from 2003-2008, including three years as board chair from 2005-2008. He has been a volunteer conservation easement monitor for the Peninsula Open Space Trust since 1991.
He is a 1984 graduate of the School of Law, University of California at Davis, where he served as an editor of the Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University in 1979. Mr. Girard is a member of the California Bar.
