Gibbs & Bruns associate Caitlin Halpern was selected as a 2020 American Bar Association “On the Rise – Top 40 Young Lawyer.”
The ABA selected Caitlin for this elite honor based on her “superb reputation as an outstanding lawyer, her professional accomplishments, and service to the public.”
Caitlin Halpern is an associate at Gibbs & Bruns LLP, a premier litigation boutique in Houston. Caitlin focuses her practice on civil litigation for clients on both sides of the docket. She is engaged in several pro bono matters, including with Refugee Services of Texas and the ACLU of Texas.
Caitlin is also a Board Member of the Rikers Debate Project, a national nonprofit that teaches public speaking and critical thinking to incarcerated people. While living in New York, Caitlin taught a weekly debate class on Rikers Island. In 2019, Caitlin founded a chapter at the Harris County jail, the second-largest jail in the country. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she became Acting Executive Director of RDP and created a correspondence course to replace in-person classes. Student letters have been featured in the Houston Chronicle, The Marshall Project, ProPublica, and more.
After law school, Caitlin was a law clerk to Judge Paul Adam Engelmayer, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York; and Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Caitlin joined Gibbs & Bruns in 2019 after starting her career as an appellate public defender in New York.
Caitlin and her fellow Top 40 Young Lawyers Award honorees are featured in the summer edition of the ABA Young Lawyers Division’s flagship print magazine, TYL.