Travis C. Gunn Counsel

Travis is a litigator and appellate attorney with over a decade of experience. He represents clients from various industries in a wide range of complex, high-stakes litigation in federal and state courts across the country.

Practice Overview

Travis’ clients often face significant personal injury and wrongful death claims, consumer class actions, state attorney general matters, and general commercial litigation.

He frequently represents designers, manufacturers, and retailers of all sorts of products, varying from automobiles to medical devices to outdoor power equipment. He advises clients involved in a wide range of industries, including automotive, agriculture, construction, healthcare, Virginia state and local government, and retail.

Travis excels at representing clients in both trial and appellate proceedings. He also advises clients on strategic risk management, particularly as to structuring relationships with business partners, customers, and employees.

Trial Court Practice

At the trial level, Travis develops and executes case strategy to achieve client goals.  He manages litigation teams, oversees and handles fact and expert discovery, drafts and argues dispositive and other major motions, and supports teams throughout trial.

His trial court practice has obtained dismissal and favorable judgments based on the pleadings, at summary judgment, during trial, and by jury verdict—helping clients avoid adverse results in some of the most challenging jurisdictions across the Nation.

Client victories span jurisdictions, legal issues, and industries.  Some victories include:

• Obtaining summary judgment, during a jury trial, on personal injury claims against a healthcare facility administrator that later resulted in a $360,000,000 verdict against other parties.
• Obtaining dismissal of contract and business tort claims seeking over $100,000,000 against a Virginia locality arising out of gambling licenses.
• Securing dismissal of numerous class actions, each seeking tens of millions of dollars, asserting consumer deception claims against clients such as consumer housewares manufacturers, nationwide retailers, and student loan servicers.
• Avoiding litigation by successfully compelling claims to arbitration, often in disputes against California employers implicating California Labor Code violations and PAGA claims.
• Helping achieve no liability verdicts in several jury trials involving multi-million dollar allegations, including product defect claims against a power equipment manufacturer and wrongful death claims against an oil field manager.

Appellate Court Practice

On appeal, Travis achieves client objectives by working to defend favorable judgments and to reverse adverse trial results.

His appellate experience covers a wide range of legal topics arising from a variety of industries.  He has represented clients in appellate matters addressing issues of constitutional law, contract law, consumer deception, complex procedural questions, products liability, and tort law.

Travis has drafted briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court; in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Eighth, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits; and in California, Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, and Virginia state appellate courts.  He has argued appeals in the Supreme Court of Virginia and the Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Pro Bono Practice

Travis dedicates significant time to pro bono representation—often spending well over 100 hours each year on pro bono matters.

His pro bono practice typically focuses on representing indigent persons during their criminal appeals, actual innocence proceedings, and habeas cases in Virginia appellate courts.  This representation includes securing a win for his client in the U.S. Supreme Court case, Collins v. Virginia, No. 16-1027 (U.S. 2018), protecting the Fourth Amendment right against warrantless searches in the curtilage around a person’s home.