Justin Goodwin

A tenacious litigator and trusted advisor, Justin Goodwin is the attorney clients turn to with their most challenging problems.

Justin’s strategic, client-centered approach focuses on achieving results tailored to each client’s unique needs, whether that means obtaining a creative, early resolution or aggressively litigating to an appellate victory. He understands that identifying the simplest, most elegant solution to a problem often requires thinking outside the box. In some instances, this means ignoring the prevailing framing of an issue in favor of a novel argument derived from first principles. In other instances, it means forgoing conventional litigation strategies altogether. In a recent trade-secrets arbitration, for example, Justin understood that the parties’ unresolved emotions would prevent a conventional settlement. Rather than forging ahead with a costly evidentiary hearing, Justin laid the groundwork for the parties to resolve their differences through an asset acquisition.

Justin spent the first part of his career at Gibson Dunn, where he litigated bet-the-company class actions. He specializes in complex commercial litigation and class action defense, with a focus on consumer and wage and hour class actions. Justin has represented Fortune 500 companies in high-stakes litigation across a variety of industries, including technology, media, automotive, manufacturing, and retail. In addition to defeating class certification in numerous California and nationwide class and collective actions, he has also tackled thorny cases involving trade secrets, patent infringement, securities fraud, defamation, wrongful termination, and PAGA claims.

Among his recent first-chair successes, Justin obtained complete defense verdicts for a leading fintech company following multi-week arbitrations. In another hard-fought victory, Justin obtained the voluntary dismissal of a patent infringement claim after positioning the case for summary judgment. The lawsuit had threatened to stifle the development of immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer patients.

In 2021, Justin was named to the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal’s annual “Top 40 Under 40” list, which profiles California’s leading lawyers under the age of 40. The Los Angeles Business Journal named Justin a “Leader of Influence” in 2023, and he recently was recognized as one of the “Best Lawyers in America.” Justin has also secured several key appellate victories, including a Ninth Circuit decision recognized as a “Top 5 Appellate Reversal of 2014” by the Daily Journal.

Justin maintains an active pro bono practice, recently obtaining asylum for a child fleeing persecution in Central America and securing a permanent restraining order for a victim of domestic violence. In his spare time, Justin enjoys rock climbing, baseball, and camping with his three children.