Gavin R. Villareal

Gavin Villareal is the Partner in Charge of the Austin office and the Austin office Litigation Department Chair. He represents clients in a wide variety of complex business-related disputes in state and federal trial and appellate courts, as well as before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). Recognized by Best Lawyers in America, he has significant first-chair experience litigating claims alleging professional negligence, misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of fiduciary duty, and financial services fraud, as well as claims involving state and federal constitutional and preemption issues.

Mr. Villareal won a landmark U.S. Supreme Court victory as lead counsel in Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media, 139 S. Ct. 2356 (2019). The case overturned almost half a century of precedent interpreting Exemption 4 to the Freedom of Information Act. Commentators described the case as "one of the most important business-related cases on the Supreme Court's docket" in the 2018-19 term.

Before law school, Mr. Villareal worked for five years at the Texas General Land Office as special assistant to Texas Land Commissioner Garry Mauro. During law school, he served as an intern to Justice Rose Spector of the Supreme Court of Texas.

Mr. Villareal has held leadership positions in numerous professional and community organizations. He is past chair of the ABA's Professional Liability Litigation Committee for the ABA's Section of Litigation. He is an Elected Member of the American Law Institute, a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, and he has held leadership roles with the Austin Bar Foundation, the Austin Bar Association, the Austin Young Lawyers Association, the Hispanic Bar Association of Austin, the HBAA Charitable Foundation, the Mexican-American Bar Association of Texas, Volunteer Legal Services of Central Texas, the Mexic-Arte Museum and the Harvard Club of Austin. He currently serves on the board of Austin PBS and of the Texas Business Hall of Fame, and is a member of the President's Council of Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas at Austin.