Drew D. Hansen

Drew D. Hansen is a partner at Susman Godfrey who has tried cases for both plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal courts across the country. Recent trials include:

• Application of Las Brisas Energy Center, LLC (Tex. State Office of Admin. Hearings 2009-present): Represented the Texas Clean Air Cities Coalition, a coalition of over 30 Texas cities, in opposing the permit for the Las Brisas Energy Center (LBEC), a proposed petroleum coke-fired power plant, on the grounds that it would not comply with the applicable air quality standards or protect human health and the environment. After a two-week trial in 2009, the judges issued a 120-page proposal for decision that recommended denial or remand of the permit. The judges particularly criticized the air modeling LBEC submitted to support the plant, calling it "unreliable" and "simply inadequate." You can read media coverage of Hansen's cross-examination of LBEC's air modeler here. After a second trial in 2010, the judges again recommended denial of the permit, based in part on their finding that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) had improperly assisted the permit applicant-a finding that relied heavily on Hansen's cross-examination of the TCEQ staff member responsible for reviewing the air modeling.

• American Association of Justice v. Wachovia Bank, N.A. (D.D.C. 2008-2011): Represented the American Association of Justice (AAJ), a 25,000-member association of trial lawyers, in a two-week jury trial on a suit alleging breach of a commercial real estate loan contract. Hansen and Steve Susman split the closing argument. The case has settled and the terms are confidential.
• BASF Corporation v. Lyondell Chemical Co. (N.J. Super. Ct. 2007-present): Represented Lyondell Chemical Company (now LyondellBasell Industries) in a two-month breach of contract trial where the jury found in favor of BASF. In December 2010, the New Jersey Superior Court vacated the judgment in its entirety and remanded the case for further proceedings.
• Alfonso C. Peña v. GBS Financial Corp., et al. (NASD 2006-2007): Represented the family of Alfonso C. Peña, a Los Angeles-based entertainer and entrepreneur, in a lawsuit against his former investment advisors. After a two-week arbitration, the panel awarded Peña damages for the excessive management fees on his investment account.
• Jacobs v. National Drug Intelligence Center (S.D. Tex. 2004-2008): Represented former Laredo National Bank president Gary G. Jacobs in a Privacy Act lawsuit against the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC). After a bench trial, the NDIC settled Jacobs's attorney fee claim for an amount believed to be one of the largest ever for attorney fees in a Privacy Act case of this nature. The NDIC also settled Jacobs's damages claim, reserving its right to appeal. In October 2008, Hansen argued and won the NDIC's appeal to the Fifth Circuit. You can read the Fifth Circuit's decision affirming the judgment against the NDIC here.

Hansen has also won major victories for clients in pretrial proceedings, including:

• McGuire v. Dendreon (W.D. Wash. 2007-2011): Represented the shareholders of Dendreon Corporation, a publicly traded biotechnology company, in a securities fraud lawsuit arising from alleged misrepresentations by a Dendreon executive during a conference call with investors. The case settled one month before trial for $16.5 million.
• Enron Corp. v. Citigroup Inc., et. al. (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2003-2005): After the collapse of Enron, the company's court-appointed management hired Susman Godfrey to recover from the financial institutions who aided and abetted the Enron insiders in hiding the company's true financial condition. Hansen was in charge of prosecuting the estate's claims against the Canadian International Bank of Commerce (CIBC), one of Canada's largest banks. After Hansen questioned the first few CIBC witnesses at deposition, CIBC witnesses started pleading the Fifth Amendment. CIBC eventually paid over $250 million to settle the estate's claims, which was collected for the benefit of the estate's creditors, including the approximately 20,000 former Enron employees who lost money in their pension funds when the company collapsed.

Hansen has also:

• Represented a class of Bristol Bay salmon fishermen in a four-month antitrust trial in Anchorage, Alaska against seafood processors and importers. The settlements before and after a jury verdict in the defendants' favor totaled over $40 million.
• Defended a multi-million dollar misappropriation of trade secrets case on behalf of REI, Inc. Hansen won dismissal of the plaintiff's motion to add a claim under Washington's version of the RICO statute, and the case settled near the end of discovery.
• Represented a registered representative in an arbitration against his former broker-dealer for unpaid compensation. The case settled before the first status conference for approximately 90% of the representative's estimated damages.
• Represented the native village of Kivalina, Alaska in a lawsuit seeking recovery from some of the largest United States contributors to climate change for the cost of relocating the village, which has become necessary due to the melting of the landfast sea ice that formerly protected the village. You can read the front page New York Times article about this case here.
• Represented plaintiffs in nineteen separate state-law antitrust class actions against Visa and MasterCard alleging illegal tying arrangements involving debit cards.
• Represented Brent Redstone in a shareholder oppression action in which he sought to dissolve the $8 billion family company controlled by his father, Sumner Redstone.

Hansen encourages you to contact his current and former clients and his opposing counsel for recommendations.

REFERENCES

Sol Weiss
Client, AAJ v. Wachovia Bank, N.A.
(215) 735-2098
sweiss@anapolschwartz.com

Barry Kaplan, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Opposing counsel, McGuire v. Dendreon
(206) 883-2500
bkaplan@wsgr.com

Dr. Devon G. Peña
Client, Peña v. GBS Financial Corp
(206) 543-1507
dpena@u.washington.edu

Hansen's busy trial practice does not stop him from serving the Bar and the wider community. He currently represents the 23rd Legislative District in the Washington State House of Representatives. He has been a part-time lecturer at the University of Washington Law School, where he co-taught an advanced seminar entitled "Social Movements, the Political Process, and the Development of Law: A Civil Rights Case Study". He is a founding member of the Puget Sound Chapter of the American Constitution Society. From 2005-2011, Hansen was Governor Christine Gregoire’s appointed public representative on the Washington Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB), Washington’s principal economic development board, which invested over $30 million and created or retained thousands of jobs during Hansen’s terms on the board. Hansen is also deeply committed to educational issues: He served for six years on the board of the Olympic College Foundation, and he has been on the steering committee for nearly every Bainbridge Island School District levy since 2004. Before Hansen began his law practice at Susman Godfrey, he was policy director for Maria Cantwell's successful U.S. Senate campaign in 2000.

• Harvard University
• Oxford University(Rhodes Scholar)
• Yale Law School

The Honorable Pierre N. Leval, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Hansen maintains an active writing and lecturing career as a sideline to his law practice. He is the author of a book, The Dream: Martin Luther King and the Speech That Inspired A Nation (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2003), which U.S. Representative John Lewis called "a great contribution to the history of the movement." Pulitzer Prize-winner David Garrow called Hansen's work "the best book in more than a decade on the movement's best-known leader," and the Denver Post called Hansen's book "essential reading for anyone trying to understand one of the great speeches in American history." Hansen has given speeches and guest lectures across the country, ranging from a lesson on Dr. King to kindergarten classes in Houston to a nationally televised reading at the Los Angeles Public Library.  Click here to listen to Hansen's 2011 appearance on NPR's "On the Media".  He has appeared on ABC's World News Tonight, CBS's Early Show, CSPAN's Book TV, CNNfn, and on NPR and dozens of radio stations in the United States and around the world. Hansen's Op-Eds have appeared in USA TODAY, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and the Houston Chronicle, and his essay on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s theological education will appear in the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther King, Jr. (Cambridge University Press, 2012).