Gordon J. Calhoun represents individuals, partnerships, corporations and other business entities in litigation and counsels them about a broad variety of business, regulatory and risk and information management protocols, including data breach responses, and compliance practices.

Mr. Calhoun also specializes in representing clients in a variety of complex, large exposure litigated matters, involving large volumes of paper and ESI. These matters have included disputes involving fiduciary breach allegations against officers, directors, pension trustees and their advisors, bad faith claims against insurers and allied professions, errors and omissions claims against professionals, including attorneys, accountants, architects and engineers, brokers and claims professionals. He has also handled large litigated matters, with voluminous paper and electronic records, involving heavy metals and petroleum environmental contamination and large fires and explosions.

Mr. Calhoun works regularly with a team of Lewis Brisbois attorneys and a variety of forensic consultants and certified records managers to assist clients to develop information management systems and to secure sensitive data. One side benefit of this effort to maximize access to an enterprise’s intellectual property contained in its electronically stored information (“ESI”) is to minimize the burden imposed on the client when it becomes a litigant subject to electronic discovery demands.

When data breaches occur, our team coordinates with the client’s Information Technology staff, forensic and crises management consultants to identify and contain the source(s) of any data breach, mitigate the reputational harm associated with the data breach and comply with applicable data breach notification obligations.  Lewis Brisbois attorneys have been successful defending clients in data breach litigation. We have successfully resisted class certifications involving unintended disclosures of social security and credit card numbers. We have also represented clients who have experienced unintended disclosures of personal health information protected by HIPAA and other federal and state privacy laws.

Mr. Calhoun serves as Chair of the Electronic Discovery, Information Management & Compliance Practice and manages the insurance regulatory and reinsurance division of the firm’s Insurance Coverage and Bad Faith Practice Group. His practice, spanning more than 35 years, focuses on arbitrations, mediations and other alternative dispute resolution procedures as well as litigation and counseling.

Mr. Calhoun has represented private parties, insureds, insurers and reinsurers in a variety of matters at the trial and appellate levels, including, but not limited to, the following:

• Developing data security protocols for municipal and commercial entities with custody of confidential personal, employment, financial and credit and health care information
• Responding to data breach events, involving personal health information and financial data, including coordinating with client information Technology Departments, forensic investigators and regulatory authorities
• Assisting brokers and underwriters to develop risk transfer products intended to provide indemnity and assist management services for victims and data breaches
• Developing of document retention and destruction policies for insurers and governmental agencies
• Developing policies and guidelines to assist insurers and law firms to comply with data security and electronic discovery obligations
• Identifying cost effective alternatives to omnibus and unfocused requests for electronically stored information directed to parties and strangers to pending actions
• Counseling clients about the proper scope of their obligations when identifying, retrieving and reviewing electronically stored information
• Providing triage document retention and destruction protocols to litigation clients enabling them to obtain the benefit of “safe harbors” created by Federal Rules and State procedural laws governing electronic discovery 
• Defending officers and directors sued by shareholders for corporate mismanagement, including actions for removal of officers and directors
• Defending officers, directors and entities sued for widespread, improper employment practices
• Defending fiduciaries, advisors and vendors for mismanagement of benefits plans
• Defending officers and directors sued by creditors’ committee for breach of fiduciary duties in Chapter 11 adversary proceedings
• Defending directors, officers and professionals in securities actions
• Representing various parties in corporate and partnership litigation including disputes between partners, shareholders, officers and directors
• Defending officers and directors sued by shareholders for corporate mismanagement, including actions for removal of officers and directors
• Providing advice and counseling to insurers as national coordinating counsel on diverse topics, including Y2K
• Analyzing, drafting and negotiating treaty and facultative reinsurance agreements and alternative risk transfer products
• Representing cedents and reinsurers in arbitrations and judicial proceedings, including obtaining awards in excess of $600,000,000 for insolvent, monoline workers’ compensation insurers
• Developing training materials for insurers’ Rule 30(b)(6) witnesses to use when preparing for deposition and trial testimony in coverage and bad faith litigation
• Analyzing, drafting and revising insurance policies and endorsements for personal, commercial and specialty lines policies for primary, excess and captive insurers
• Investigating potentially fraudulent claims brought by insureds, including conducting examinations under oath and advising insurers about how their insureds’ conduct may impact defense and indemnity obligations
• Prosecuting declaratory relief, rescission, fraud and RICO actions against insureds suspected of committing fraud against insurers during the application or claims processes
• Employing prejudgment attachment, involuntary bankruptcy and civil compromises to secure recoveries for insurers and their insureds
• Defending insurers against breach of contract and bad faith claims
• Defending insurers and their counsel against malicious prosecution claims
• Defending professionals, including attorneys, brokers, architects and engineers, in malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty claims
• Representing world renowned architects in disputes involving public buildings, including concert halls
• Representing architects and engineers in a variety of disputes including high rise residential construction
• Defending multinational companies against tort claims filed in the United States by foreign nationals asserting claims for injuries suffered outside the United States
• Representing owners of contaminated properties in contested proceedings relating to extent of contamination and scope and cost of cleanup

Publications

Appeals

Appointments

Professional Presentations

Mr. Calhoun has given numerous lectures and seminars to attorneys and members of the risk industry on a variety of topics, particularly data security, privacy, electronic discovery affecting all industries and bad faith, material breaches of policies, rescission, coverage, and insurance fraud issues affecting insurers and their insureds. These include:

• “Technology Management,” Corporate Counsel Business Journal, Beverly Hills, February 10-11, 2020.
• “Ethics of 21st Century Technology,” Corporate Counsel Business Journal, Beverly Hills, February 10-11, 2020.
• Ingenious Think Tank – Finding the New Truth: Microdata, Macrodata and the Future of Predictive Coding and Other Tools (2014)
• Discussion and Debate Over Potential Changes to the FRCP (2014)
• Predictive Analytics and Its Effect on Big Data (2014)
• Hone the Story: Review as an Analytic Tool (2014)
• Managing Cyber Risks: Identify, Prevent and Manage Critical Threats at the Korean Investors & Traders Association of Southern California, Inc. (March 26, 2014)
• Are You Ready for a Data Security Breach Incident (2013)
• Los Angeles Digital Boot Camp (2013)
• Cloud Computing, Mobile Device Usage and the Challenges They Bring in Litigation (2013)
• Using Functional Models to Align Ethical Interests (2013)
• Language & Responsibility:  Do We Need to Keep Calling it Predictive Coding? (2013)
• eDiscovery - Discovery in an Electronic Era (2013)
• Selling Data Breach Coverage to Uncommitted Prospects (2013)
• Information Management, Data Security and Litigation Readiness (2013)
• Use of Discovery Data (2013)
• A Frank Conversation About the Meaning of Possession Custody & Control (2013)
• Controlling eDiscovery Costs, and Managing Data Security Incidents & Breaches (2013)
• Data Breaches Are Like Icebergs: What You Can’t See Can Sink You (2012)
• Where the Cloud Can Most Benefit E-Discovery Lifecycle Activities (2012)
• Social Media and E-Discovery Issues for Healthcare Providers (2012)
• The GARP Principles and E-Discovery (2012)
• E-Discovery Circa 2015:  Will Aggressive Preservation/Collection and Predictive Coding Be Commonplace? (2012)
• Social Media: Update on Evolving Trends (2012)
• The Medical Legal Risks of E-Discovery and Social Media in Healthcare (2012)
• High and Low Tech Communication Problems in Emergency Medicine: Handoffs and Social Media Issues (2012)
• Privacy, Data Breach and Electronic Discovery (2011)
• Medical/Legal Risks Posed by the Intersection of Electronic Data, Social Media, Privacy Rules and E-Discovery (2011)
• Are You Ready for a Data Breach? (2011)
• E-Discovery and Social Media: The Intersection of Case Law, Data Privacy and Practical Discovery (2011)
• E-Discovery Best Practices (2011)
• Nuts and Bolts of E-Discovery (2011)
• Communication Problems in Emergency Medicines: Diagnostic Errors, Handoffs and Social Media (2011)
• Managing Left Side EDRM Exposures (2011)
• Cost Effective eDiscovery Best Practices (2011)
• Electronic Discovery: Cost Concerns and Critiques (2011)
• The Medical/Legal Risks of E-Discovery, Social Networking and HIPAA (2011)
• What’s a Good Attorney to do about E-Discovery? (2010)
• Addressing Left Side EDRM Exposures (2010)
• Arbitration: Elements of a Fundamentally Fair Hearing under the FAA-Issues and Solutions (2010)
• California AB 5:  More than Meets the Eye (2009)
• Reinsurance Agreements: Regulatory Roundup: How the NAIC and State Initiatives, New Collateralization Developments and More Are Changing Reinsurance Agreements (2009)
• Reinsurance Arbitration Procedures:  What Works and What Doesn’t – Solutions for Effectively and Economically Resolving the Non-Standard Disputes (2009)
• Real World E-Discovery Challenges (2008)
• E-Discovery: The Rules, the Problems They Create and Some Suggestions to Resolve Them (2008)
• Lexington Professional Liability Claims Handling Seminar for California, Florida and West Virginia (2007)
• E-Discovery: The Revised FRCP Rules and Their Impact of Your Practice (2007)
• Does an Insured Have a Right to Independent Counsel? (2007)
• Understanding California’s New Reinsurance Regulations (2007)
• To Combo or Not to Combo? (2006)
• Professional & General Liability Combo Policies: The Grey Areas (2006)
• Underwriting & Adjusting Entertainment Risks (2006)
• Insurance Litigation: Tools for Conquering New Frontiers and Familiar Foes (2005)
• How a Rule 30(b)(6) Witness Can Help Win Cases (2005, 2007)
• New Duties / Liabilities for Lawyers from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2003)
• Insurance Coverage Law in California (2001)
• Y2K Claims Litigation (1999)
• Recognizing and Resolving Ethical Conflicts (1999)

Admissions

• State Bar Admissions
  • California
• United States District Courts
  • United States District Court for the Central District of California
  • United States District Court for the Eastern District of California
  • United States District Court for the Northern District of California
  • United States District Court for the Southern District of California
• United States Courts of Appeals
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Admissions

California

All California Federal District Courts

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Education

Stanford University School of Law

Juris Doctor, 1978

The Johns Hopkins University

Bachelor of Arts, 1975