John Gaffney

John T. Gaffney is a partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and serves as chair of Gibson Dunn’s Cleantech Industry Group.  Mr. Gaffney is also a member of the firm’s Power and Renewables, Mergers and Acquisitions, Capital Markets, and Securities Regulation and Corporate Governance Practice Groups.  He has extensive experience representing public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and capital markets transactions.  Mr. Gaffney also advises boards of directors and special committees in corporate governance matters.  Mr. Gaffney has considerable transactional experience advising domestic and international clients across numerous industries, including significant depth in the cleantech, media, telecom, renewable energy and shipping industries.

Prior to joining Gibson Dunn in 2011, Mr. Gaffney was a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.  During his 22 years at Cravath, Mr. Gaffney’s practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, capital markets transactions and corporate governance matters.  In 2008, Mr. Gaffney left Cravath to join his client, First Solar, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of thin-film photovoltaic solar modules, where he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer and led the legal, corporate development and worldwide government affairs functions.  In 2010, Mr. Gaffney joined Solyndra, Inc., a manufacturer of thin-film photovoltaic solar modules, where he served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and General Counsel and led the legal, corporate development, worldwide government affairs and business development-emerging markets functions.

Mr. Gaffney earned his Juris Doctor and Masters of Business Administration from New York University in 1986.  He earned his Bachelor of Arts from The George Washington University in 1982, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.