Noting the firm’s “impressive client base,” industry directory Legal 500 released its 2016 rankings recognizing Gibbs & Bruns LLP in its Leading Trial Lawyers, Energy Litigation and Securities Litigation – Plaintiff top tier rankings.
Trial lawyers Robin Gibbs, Kathy Patrick, Barrett Reasoner and Grant Harvey are highlighted on the selective “Leading US Trial Lawyers” shortlist which names just 53 lawyers nationwide. In addition, Gibbs & Bruns maintains its Tier 1 ranking in Energy Litigation – one of just four firms nationwide selected for this honor. The firm’s securities litigation expertise was highlighted in a new section of this year’s directory, Securities Litigation – Plaintiff.
LEADING TRIAL LAWYERS
Four Gibbs & Bruns trial lawyers are named on the 2016 shortlist of top trial lawyers in the US:
Robin Gibbs
Kathy Patrick
Barrett Reasoner
Grant Harvey
Kathy Patrick – Gibbs & Bruns LLP
The ‘wickedly smart and fearless’ Kathy Patrick has ‘excellent strategy development and case management’. With a focus on complex commercial litigation, particularly securities and institutional investor disputes, her recent trials have included multibillion-dollar RMBS cases. She is representing 22 institutional investors in a case concerning bad mortgages sold by Bank of America’s Countrywide. The matter concluded with an $8.5bn approved settlement, one of the largest reported since the mortgage boom and financial crisis.
Robin Gibbs – Gibbs & Bruns LLP
Texas-based Robin Gibbs is ‘excellent in developing compelling trial themes and persuasively conveying these to the jury in commonsense terms’. He works on multibillion-dollar cases, and has particular expertise in environmental disputes. He has been representing Vantage Drilling in a longstanding and complex fraud and breach of fiduciary duty case against a shareholder; the case will now proceed to arbitration in June 2016. Another client is ERG Resources, a Houston oil and gas exploration company; Gibbs is defending the company in a dispute regarding the acquisition of oil and gas property in Colombia.
ENERGY LITIGATION
Gibbs & Bruns LLP is one of only four law firms, nationwide, selected for the Tier 1 position in Legal 500’s rankings. Lawyers named in the editorial include:
Barrett Reasoner
Kathy Patrick
Robin Gibbs
Scott Humphries
Houston-based Gibbs & Bruns LLP has an impressive client base, including many key industry players, and provides deep expertise in representing plaintiffs and defendants in litigation and arbitration. A team including Barrett Reasoner defended various affiliates of Kinder Morgan in a contract suit filed by Alliance Energy Services alleging nine causes of action for declaratory judgment and damages; Kinder Morgan subsequently asserted counterclaims and in the end the dispute was settled amicably. Kathy Patrick and Scott Humphries represented WGI Emerging Markets Fund and several other institutional investors as plaintiffs in a securities fraud action against Petrobras and its auditor PwC arising out of the Lava Jato or ‘Car Wash’ operation. In arbitration, the team represented Colorado-based oil and gas company Venoco in a contract dispute with Denbury Onshore. Robin Gibbs is an ‘outstanding lawyer’.
SECURITIES LITIGATION – PLAINTIFF
Gibbs & Bruns is ranked among just 12 firms highlighted in the 2016 editorial for securities plaintiffs’ litigation. Lawyers highlighted for their expertise, include:
Kathy Patrick
Robert Madden
Robin Gibbs
Scott Humphries
David Sheeren
Gibbs & Bruns LLP in Houston is ‘very good, a very active firm on the plaintiff side’ and has ‘a reputation for creativity that has led to great success in the RMBS space’. Defense counsel see the practice as ‘a formidable opponent that pushes cases aggressively’, and clients praise founding partner Robin Gibbs, who has over four decades’ trial experience, and Kathy Patrick, who ‘stands out from the crowd as a litigator’. In a major victory, Patrick, Scott Humphries, Robert Madden and David Sheeren secured approval of an $8.5bn settlement from Countrywide for RMBS investors, including BlackRock and MetLife. Patrick is also leading a team that filed suit on behalf of Fannie Mae against nine major banks seeking $800m in damages as a result of alleged manipulation of LIBOR. The firm is also pursuing banks, including Citibank and Deutsche Bank, in regard to failures by Ocwen Financial Corporation as servicer to 119 RMBS trusts with a total value of $82bn, and is acting for institutional investors, including WGI Emerging Markets Fund, in a securities fraud action against Brazilian national oil company Petrobras and auditor PwC.
