Gordon Sung

Counsel

Gordon is Counsel in the San Francisco office of ArentFox Schiff LLP. He specializes in advising clients on emerging technology regulatory issues and enforcement matters, with a particular focus on autonomous and electric vehicles, mobility, and AI.

Gordon Sung

As the former US General Counsel of one of the top international autonomous vehicle (“AV”) companies in the industry, Gordon has a deep understanding of the regulatory issues framing autonomous driving technology and business matters.  In addition, he provides regulatory advice to a wide range of mobility clients including EV makers, ride-hailing startups, logistics companies, and online retailers.

Gordon has represented clients in complex federal and state government investigations and enforcement defense matters, licensing and permitting matters, developing regulatory compliance programs and policy strategies, intellectual property issues, and technology licensing agreements. In addition, he has navigated complex issues related to international AV operations and technology development, particularly China, including national security, export control, data security and privacy issues.

Before his time as in-house counsel, Gordon was a senior attorney in a major international law firm where he represented clients in government and criminal investigations, enforcement actions, and complex commercial litigation. Throughout his career, he has significant experience before a wide range of regulators, prosecutors, and agencies, including NHTSA, DOJ, SEC, CFIUS, California DMV, California PUC, Arizona DOT, and various state attorney generals. 

Gordon also provides outside general counsel services to startup and technology companies including advising on data privacy, fund-raising, operational issues, internal policies, intellectual property, labor and employment, and litigation strategy.

Client Work

Gordon’s representative matters include:

  • Advise EV maker on product regulatory issues.
  • Advise online retailers with complex regulatory issues related to multi-state vehicle sales.
  • Obtained various driverless and drivered AV testing and robotaxi licenses from California DMV and PUC and Arizona DOT, and developed programs and policies to comply with related AV regulations.
  • NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) enforcement action defense concerning driverless AV operations incidents and alleged AV technology defect, and California DMV AV testing license suspension and revocation matters.
  • International Tier-1 supplier in NHTSA ODI investigation and enforcement action concerning airbag inflator ruptures.
  • Supply and co-development agreements for AV technology, including specialized cameras, image processing chips, FPGA, firmware and software tool kids, Drive-By-Wire (DBW) technology, and related intellectual property strategy issues.   
  • An international hedge fund in parallel market manipulation investigations by the SEC and HK SFC concerning alleged “short and distort” trading strategies and related civil defamation action in New York State Supreme Court
  • Represented internet lending and financial technology companies in a TRO lawsuit against New York banking regulators and expedited appeal to the Second Circuit. Named a “Banking Case to Watch 2014” by Law360
  • Represented a financial professional in criminal tax evasion charges in the SDNY, resulting in a non-prosecution agreement.
  • Wide range of complex breach of contract litigation in the New York Commercial Division and SDNY.

Previous Work

Prior to joining ArentFox Schiff, Gordon served for 3.5 years as the US General Counsel of one of the most valuable venture-backed AV companies in the industry, where he built and led the US legal department and government relations function. In addition, Gordon led the company’s $462M Series C funding round and $267M Series C+ round. Previously, he served as Lead US Commercial Counsel and Acting-Lead US Privacy Counsel for the US subsidiary of an Asian automotive OEM, and Senior Associate in the White Collar and Commercial Litigation Groups in the New York office of a major international law firm.

Perspectives