Gibbs & Bruns LLP is pleased to announce the promotion of Caitlin Halpern to the partnership.
Caitlin is a dynamic trial lawyer who has handled multiple high-profile commercial litigation matters for some of the world’s largest financial institutions, technology companies, and energy giants. Ranked by Chambers USA, which notes that clients are “very impressed with her,” Caitlin carries a robust docket that often lands her practice on both sides of the “v.” In 2023, she briefed and solely presented argument in California Superior Court, securing precedent-setting results for client PIMCO and other aligned parties in a bellwether case affecting $10 billion across the RMBS market. She scored major victories for an energy company in multiple cases involving the collapse of a salt mine, and she briefed, argued, and won a matter of first impression concerning an exemption to the FAA, successfully compelling the matter to arbitration.
Caitlin was named American Lawyer Media Texas’s “Pro Bono Attorney the Year” in 2025, and was a finalist for “Influential Woman of the Year” in 2024. Caitlin’s work has been lauded in Legal 500, Best Lawyers in America, Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Litigators in America,” and Thomson Reuters’ Texas Super Lawyers “Rising Stars.”
Caitlin’s tireless civic activism and philanthropy add another dimension to her depth as a trial lawyer and fierce advocate for her clients. Caitlin serves as Gibbs & Bruns’s pro bono liaison as well as Executive Director of the Rikers Debate Project. Caitlin co-founded the Houston Chapter in 2019 and started a debate class at the Harris County jail, the third-largest jail in the country. Previously, Caitlin lived and worked in New York City, where she taught a weekly debate class on Rikers Island. Over the past year, Caitlin worked with Texas Defender Service, UT Parole Project, and other law firms to build a statewide network of pro bono parole attorneys. In addition to securing parole release for 13 clients to date, she has handled numerous pro bono cases referred by Houston Volunteer Lawyers, Lambda Legal, Refugee Services of Texas, the Office of Capital & Forensic Writs, and the Innocence Project. Caitlin is an incoming member of the Texas Defender Service Board of Directors and serves on the Houston Bar Association’s HAY Center Committee, supporting programing for youth in foster care. Caitlin and her partner are certified foster parents and supporters of DePelchin Children’s Center in Houston.
Caitlin attended Harvard Law School and was a law clerk to Judge Paul Adam Engelmayer, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She began her legal career with Appellate Advocates in New York before joining Gibbs & Bruns in 2019.