Josh Gardner is a first-chair trial and appellate attorney who represents clients in high-stakes litigation, appeals, congressional investigations, regulatory disputes, and complex matters involving federal and state government action. Over more than two decades in private practice and at the U.S. Department of Justice, he has litigated some of the nation's most consequential constitutional, administrative, commercial, and regulatory disputes. He has led trial teams through more than a dozen bench and jury trials, examined and cross-examined a broad array of fact and expert witnesses, argued dispositive motions, discovery motions, preliminary injunctions, and temporary restraining orders, and managed litigation involving billions of dollars in claimed damages.
At DLA Piper, Josh represents corporations, financial institutions, healthcare organizations, energy companies, trade associations, and other clients in complex commercial litigation, toxic tort matters, constitutional and regulatory challenges, disputes involving federal agencies, and appeals. He regularly advises clients confronting significant legal, regulatory, and reputational risk, and serves as outside counsel to Lawyers for Civil Justice on federal rulemaking initiatives and civil justice reform matters.
Before joining DLA Piper, Josh served in senior positions within DOJ's Civil Division, where he represented the United States in matters involving constitutional law, administrative law, congressional oversight, crisis litigation, and litigation risk assessment. Across five presidential administrations, he worked closely with the White House and federal agencies on strategy for matters of national significance. He also served as the Acting Chief of Staff at DOJ's Office of Legislative Affairs.
Josh has served as lead counsel, trial counsel, or supervisory counsel in nationally significant matters, including as lead counsel in high-profile First Amendment litigation involving constitutional limits on federal government communications with social media companies; lead counsel in litigation arising from what was then the largest federal government data breach in history; lead counsel in multiple trials challenging the inclusion of a citizenship question on the 2020 Census; co-lead counsel in a nine-week trial arising from the federal government's rescue of AIG during the 2008 financial crisis, involving approximately $40 billion in claimed damages; and lead or trial counsel in multiple spent nuclear fuel cases involving billions of dollars in alleged damages.
Josh also has extensive experience preparing, examining, and defending witnesses in high-pressure proceedings. He has prepared senior government officials for congressional testimony, represented high-level officials in transcribed interviews and depositions, defended depositions involving cabinet-level and sub-cabinet agency leadership, and worked extensively with fact and expert witnesses in complex litigation. He also devotes significant time to developing trial teams and training lawyers in witness preparation, examination strategy, trial advocacy, evidence, and civil litigation.
A longtime advocate for trial-advocacy training, Josh teaches litigation skills and legal ethics to practicing lawyers and law students nationwide. He serves as a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, a Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School, and an instructor at DOJ's National Advocacy Center, where he teaches trial advocacy, evidence, depositions, and civil litigation courses.
