Benchmark Litigation has named Gibbs & Bruns LLP a Top 20 Trial Firm and Top Boutique for the fourth consecutive year in its newly-released 2022 rankings. Benchmark Litigation also ranked the firm in its top category of “Highly Recommended” firms in Texas, a position Gibbs & Bruns has held since the directory’s inception.
Benchmark Litigation 2022 features 13 Gibbs & Bruns trial lawyers:
Partners Robin Gibbs, Kathy Patrick, Barrett Reasoner and Mark Giugliano are named “Litigation Stars.”
Kathy Patrick is also highlighted in the directory’s “Top 250 Women in Litigation.”
Partners Mike Absmeier, Sam Cruse, Aundrea Gulley, Ashley Kleber, Ayesha Najam and Brian Ross are named “Future Stars.”
Partners Anthony Kaim, Ashley Kleber, and David Sheeren are all named to the “40 & Under Hot List.”
Based in Houston but nationally recognized for its litigation and trial prowess, Gibbs & Bruns is a boutique that continues to reinvent itself while remaining one of the most venerated firms of its variety. Recognized by Benchmark Litigation as one of the Top 20 Trial Firms in the country for the fourth consecutive year, the firm has continuously obtained favorable results on behalf of its clients in high-stakes business and complex commercial disputes.
Former managing partner Scott Humphries has retired, and in his place Mike Absmeier/Ashley Kleber, two younger emerging stars, have stepped in to share co-managing partner duties. Both operate largely in the commercial litigation space, with an emphasis on the energy industry. Absmeier and Kleber are involved in three matters, valued in total at $5 billion, for Trustmark National Bank related to the collapse of the ill-fated (and ultimately exposed as fraudulent) Stanford Financial Group, for whom the client provided routine banking services.
Lead counsel in the cases, veteran trial lawyer and firm figurehead Robin Gibbs has more than 45 years of litigation experience under his belt. His practice is dedicated to business and commercial litigation pertaining to contract, energy, oil and gas, antitrust, trade secret, legal malpractice, securities, director liability, intellectual property, construction, and partnership issues. Gibbs still draws accolades as being one of the “finest trial lawyers in Houston, a town that has many of them.”
Another perennial favorite, Kathy Patrick is helming a case for 17 opt-out plaintiffs against VISA/Mastercard concerning claims that the card entities violated antitrust laws by imposing supracompetitive interchange fees on merchants accepting Visa and Mastercard payment cards. This sprawling case is valued at $20 billion. “There could even be treble damages there,” marvels one peer. “This is a massive deal.”
Barrett Reasoner, yet another firm evergreen, acts on this matter as well. “Barrett Reasoner might be one of the best trial lawyers I’ve ever seen,” extols a peer. “He got a take-nothing judgment in the Natural Resources v. Anadarko case against Susman Godfrey, which is a great firm!” Patrick is also part of the lead counsel team representing OxyChem in a New Jersey federal lawsuit over cleanup costs allegedly related to a stretch of the purportedly polluted Passaic River.
Benchmark Litigation is the only legal directory researching and reporting exclusively on trial lawyers and litigation firms and departments.
