What We Do

At Gilbert, we solve your problems.
That’s what we do.

When clients come to us, their problems are neither simple nor singular. The difficulties we confront always have interwoven parts – multiple parties and disparate interests, different fields of law, financial layers, corporate structures, complex liabilities, partnership challenges, and many other related components.

As we gain an understanding of your situation, we begin probing. Our goal is to analyze the depth of your problem so we can craft a strategy that maximizes your result. We never take a pre-determined direction because every set of circumstances suggests its own unique path forward.

Gilbert finds that path. Usually, we create it. Often, we invent the legal and business mechanisms to effectuate it.

We litigate successfully. We establish favorable arbitration structures. We develop inventive mediation approaches. We create new legal strategies. And we negotiate with tools and savvy no one else can devise.

Gilbert lawyers take care of business. We apply the Gilbert Edge to whatever you bring us, delivering results that always meet or exceed your expectations.

  • Case Study

    Coverage For Pharmaceutical Company’s Product Liability And Mass Tort Litigation

    We served as insurance counsel to a Fortune 500 medical products company with significant product liability and mass tort exposure related to artificial heart valves, hip and knee replacements, and pharmaceutical products.  We resolved all outstanding insurance coverage issues related to these claims under a multi-billion-dollar insurance portfolio.
  • Case Study

    Multi-Million Insurance Recovery for Receiver Against Chinese Company

    We recovered millions of dollars on behalf of the receiver for a defunct China-based media company through international mediation and arbitration of insurance disputes and claims against the company’s former professionals.
  • Case Study

    $80 Million Fund for Sexual Abuse Claims Against Catholic Diocese

    As insurance counsel to a class of claimants suing a Catholic diocese for negligent supervision of employees who had engaged in sexual abuse, we negotiated a settlement with the Diocese’s insurers to create a settlement fund and appropriate distribution procedures for class members.
  • Case Study

    $24 Million to Settle Ponzi Scheme Case Without Litigation

    We utilized a combination of insurance collections and payments from an indemnifying former corporate parent to fund the settlement of claims asserted by a receiver and a putative class of investors arising from one of the largest Ponzi schemes in United States history.
  • Case Study

    Wellington Agreement

    One of our lawyers was the primary negotiator and drafter of an insurance treaty (the “Wellington Agreement”) among 35 policyholders and 15 groups of insurers, resolving disputes relating to over $15 billion in coverage for asbestos-related claims.  This treaty shaped the response of insurers to one of the largest mass-tort crises in American history, created the first mass-tort multi-defendant claims-resolution facility and incorporated a cutting-edge use of ADR over the succeeding decades.
  • Case Study

    Oil-Spill Liability Fund Settlement

    Our lawyers negotiated a substantial settlement of a claim against a statutory oil-spill compensation fund in connection with one of the world’s largest oil spills in U.S. waters.
  • Case Study

    Representation of Public University in ADA Investigation

    We represented a public university in connection with an investigation commenced by the USDOJ into the accessibility of the university’s campus to persons with disabilities.  This work involved negotiations with DOJ over alleged accessibility violations as well as development of a plan for remedying alleged violations.
  • Case Study

    Pioneered Asbestos Prepackaged Bankruptcy Cases

    We designed, negotiated, and implemented a prepackaged plan of reorganization under which the client contributed its insurance rights and proceeds to a trust to pay asbestos claims and the client’s asbestos-related bodily injury liabilities were discharged.  We settled more than a quarter of a billion dollars of insurance coverage to fund the trust, and subsequently settled the remaining coverage that had been transferred to the trust.  Our client emerged from the reorganization case free of asbestos liabilities and today is a successful and growing company.
  • Case Study

    “All Sums” Decision In Illinois

    Our attorneys were retained to represent a policyholder in an Illinois asbestos bodily injury coverage case that had been pending more than five years.  We persuaded the trial court to overturn its previous orders from before our representation and hold that an insurer was obligated to pay “all sums” for claims triggering its policy – that is, the insurer was obligated to pay our client’s liability in full, subject only to any applicable policy limits.  The decision is particularly notable because it reverses a prior trend in Illinois that limited each excess insurer’s obligation to a prorated share of the claim.
  • Case Study

    Prepackaged Bankruptcy with Over $500 Million in Insurance Assets

    In connection with our representation of a small installation contractor, we recommended, developed, and oversaw a prepackaged bankruptcy strategy, as well as pursuit of non-products coverage after most products coverage was exhausted.  Our strategy resulted in insurance recovery in excess of $500 million and approval of a favorable Chapter 11 plan of reorganization.
  • Case Study

    Corporate Restructuring and Insurance Funding to Guarantee Company Survival

    We represented a small, closely-held insulation and roofing contracting company that was facing bankruptcy as a result of its asbestos-related liabilities.  In helping to ensure the company's continued survival, we undertook a multi-faceted approach whereby we (a) obtained millions of dollars in insurance proceeds to pay asbestos-related claims from solvent and insolvent insurers, and (b) provided strategic advice to the company regarding a restructuring that preserved its access to insurance coverage.
  • Case Study

    Hundreds of Millions in Coverage to Secure Exit Financing

    We represented a debtor in a mass-tort-related bankruptcy case that faced significant time pressure to reach confirmation to comply with its DIP (debtor-in-possession) lender’s requirement to maintain favorable financing.  Within three weeks, our lawyers negotiated a resolution of every insurer objection related to three separate liability streams on terms satisfactory to the debtor and consented to by the committee representing bodily injury claimants and a representative for future claimants, thus enabling the DIP financing to proceed.
  • Case Study

    Settlement of Post-Bankruptcy Insurance Claims

    We represented an asbestos trust in litigation in state court against two insurers that had refused to settle during the bankruptcy proceedings that led to the formation of the trust.  Following years of vigorous litigation, both insurers settled on terms favorable to our clients.
  • Case Study

    Prepackaged Bankruptcy with No Insurer Objections

    We represented an ad hoc committee of asbestos plaintiffs to negotiate hundreds of millions of dollars of insurance settlements and a pre-negotiated plan of reorganization that incorporated those settlements.  This allowed the debtor to confirm a bankruptcy plan without insurer objections and our clients to access a trust with hundreds of millions of dollars available to pay their claims.
  • Case Study

    Successful Fraudulent Transfer Claim on Behalf of Floor Tile Manufacturer

    Our lawyers successfully brought a fraudulent transfer lawsuit on behalf of a bankrupt asbestos defendant against a Canadian company that we alleged stripped all the assets out of our client to avoid paying asbestos-related bodily injury claims.
  • Case Study

    Represented Tort Creditors’ Committee in Major Automotive Bankruptcy

    We represented the tort creditors' committee in an automotive manufacturing bankruptcy, advising and negotiating with the U.S.-based debtors and their international parent to obtain the full value of international insurance.
  • Case Study

    Resolution and Funding of Dental Malpractice and Fraud Claims

    On behalf of a bankruptcy committee representing thousands of children injured by dental malpractice, we developed a unique trust structure that permitted claims to be valued in the tort system, but also maintained the trust’s ability to maximize insurer funding and streamline the administration of claims after values had been established.
  • Case Study

    U.S. And U.K. Insolvency Proceedings

    We represented a U.S. policyholder that had a U.K. subsidiary with significant tort liability in both the U.S. and the U.K.  This entity, which had purchased a policy with an aggregate limit of nearly a billion dollars covering both itself and its U.S. subsidiaries, sought protection of both U.S. and U.K. insolvency laws and cases proceeded in both countries.  During the course of the parallel proceedings, our lawyers were crucial in resolving numerous novel bankruptcy and insurance issues necessary to preserve and recover proceeds from this policy.
  • Case Study

    Resolution of International Medical Implant Claims in Bankruptcy Case

    We led settlement negotiations that resolved class action cases asserting thousands of medical implant claims against a U.S. company in bankruptcy.  These settlements, which were incorporated into the overall reorganization plan, resolved the vast majority of the international claims in the U.S. reorganization case.
  • Case Study

    Successful Mass Tort Bankruptcy and Coverage Case

    We represented an asbestos trust in litigation in state court against two insurers that had refused to settle during the bankruptcy proceedings that led to the formation of the trust.  Issues included whether the trust's predecessor could assign insurance rights to the trust and the reasonableness of the settlement that resulted in the creation of the trust.  Following years of vigorous litigation, both insurers settled on terms favorable to our clients.
  • Case Study

    Groundbreaking “Pass Through” Settlement

    After securing more than $100 million for a mass-tort-claimants’ committee, we negotiated a first-of-its-kind settlement that permitted the resulting trust to retain its disputed claim against a recalcitrant insurer, without delaying confirmation.
  • Case Study

    Swift Resolution of Insurer Objections to Secure Exit Financing

    Our debtor client faced three separate liability streams, over one dozen insurer objections, and significant time pressure to reach confirmation in order to maintain favorable financing.  Our lawyers negotiated resolution with every insurer-objector within three weeks, garnered support of all tort claimant representatives and facilitated our client emerging successfully from bankruptcy.
  • Case Study

    Recovery of More Than $2 Billion in Bulk Vitamins Price-Fixing Litigation

    One of our Firm’s partners represented a client group of more than 125 large purchasers of bulk vitamins in a variety of industries in litigation against a global price-fixing cartel of vitamin manufacturers.  This representation resulted in recoveries of over $2 billion for the client group.
  • Case Study

    Defense of Public University in Civil Rights Actions

    We successfully defended a public university in numerous employee lawsuits alleging that the university had violated the employees’ civil rights in employment-related decisions.  This work included representation before trial and appellate courts at the state and federal levels.
  • Case Study

    Representation of Major Purchasers of Polyurethane Chemicals in Price-Fixing Litigation

    All but one defendant settled pre-trial, and the case was tried against the remaining defendant which settled five weeks into trial in New Jersey federal court.  Total client recoveries were approximately $500 million.
  • Case Study

    Multi-Million Dollar Recovery Following Two Appeals in Attorneys’ Fee Dispute

    We won two appeals to the Fourth Circuit in a multi-million-dollar case in which a former client contended that their law firm, which they had discharged following a successful jury trial that resulted in an eight-figure verdict for the client, was entitled to only a fraction of its hourly fees in a quantum meruit (that is, the amount that is merited) fee claim.
  • Case Study

    Major Recovery from Manufacturers of Corrugated Materials

    Our lawyers represented some of the leading household-brand consumer products companies and other large purchasers of corrugated material against linerboard manufacturers accused of participating in a conspiracy to restrict supply and increase prices of linerboard and corrugated products. While the client group was only 25% of the entire class of plaintiffs, total client recoveries of approximately $200 million were almost the same as total class recoveries.
  • Case Study

    Successful Anti-trust Action Against Agribusiness Giant

    One of our Firm’s partners successfully represented major food producers who purchased citric acid in a price-fixing antitrust action against a global cartel of chemical manufacturers.
  • Case Study

    Representation of Employer in Fair Labor Standard Act Litigation

    In a matter of first impression before the United State District Court for Delaware, we successfully eliminated a plaintiff’s entitlement to damages in a wage-and-hour lawsuit, establishing that the plaintiff was judicially estopped because he had made inconsistent representations in a contemporaneous bankruptcy proceeding.  While the ruling permitted the bankruptcy trustee to recover in the plaintiff’s stead, it capped the maximum damages the trustee could recover at less than one percent of the plaintiff’s demand.
  • Case Study

    Excess-of-Loss Policy

    As counsel to a major asbestos defendant that was undervalued and unattractive as a potential acquisition because of the uncertainty surrounding its future asbestos liability, we drafted and helped negotiate an excess-of-loss policy providing an additional $800 million of coverage over a predetermined future liability.  Because this policy reassured the market that the company’s asbestos liabilities were contained, the company became a more attractive investment candidate and it subsequently was acquired.
  • Case Study

    Insurance Due Diligence for M&A Activity

    We have regularly represented private equity and public companies in connection with their mergers and acquisition activity.  As part of the acquisition team, we develop strategy related to all aspects of potential liabilities, insurance, and risk management, with particular focus on product liability and directors and officers exposures.  Our strategic approach involves a broad review of corporate structure and alternative risk transfer mechanisms.
  • Case Study

    Policy Negotiation and Placement

    Our attorneys have provided advice to companies, including one of the world’s leading real estate owners, developers, fund managers, and operators, in negotiating the terms of errors & omissions and directors & officers insurance coverage.  Our work in this area has included assessing risk profiles, drafting policy language, and negotiating coverage terms with insurance brokers and insurers.
  • Case Study

    Hundreds of Millions Recovered for Securities Class Actions Claims

    We negotiated recovery of hundreds of millions of dollars in directors and officers insurance proceeds to fund settlements of securities class action claims asserted against a Fortune 500 company.  In doing so, we overcame insurer objections that the underlying securities settlements were not covered, should be related to earlier claims and paid by other policies, and were excluded based on their alleged connection to one of the largest corporate plea agreements in U.S. history.
  • Case Study

    Substantial Recovery from Released Insurers

    We recovered more than $10 million for a CEO, CFO, and other officers who had been completely cut out of the company’s court-approved insurance settlement by filing extra-contractual tort claims against more than a dozen insurers, ultimately resulting in multiple settlements.
  • Case Study

    Insurance Funding for Historic Shareholder Derivative Claim Settlement

    We recovered without litigation $75 million in directors and officers insurance proceeds to fully fund one of the largest shareholder derivative claims in United States history.  Gilbert successfully obtained this recovery despite vehement insurer opposition to the underlying derivative settlement based on their contentions that they had no coverage obligations because the alleged settlement was unreasonable, negotiated without their consent, and not covered under the terms of their policies.
  • Case Study

    Unprecedented D&O Insurance Recovery to Compensate Victims of International Securities Fraud

    We obtained millions of dollars in directors and officers insurance proceeds through an alternative dispute resolution process on behalf of a receiver for a defunct Chinese company that defrauded U.S. investors.  In this novel case, Gilbert was able to secure insurance proceeds despite multiple prior default judgments finding the policyholder had engaged in a massive securities fraud.
  • Case Study

    $75 Million Shareholder Derivative Action Settlement by D&O Insurers Without Coverage Litigation

    As insurance counsel to a public company and its directors and officers, we were instrumental in obtaining full payment by D&O insurers of a $75 million shareholder derivative action settlement without coverage litigation.
  • Case Study

    Claims Against Government, Contractor And Insurers For Cuban Imprisonment

    On behalf of Alan Gross, a U.S. citizen imprisoned by the Cuban government for more than 5 years, we filed three lawsuits in two federal courts against the U.S. government, a major government contractor, and contractor's insurers, seeking compensation for his imprisonment.  Following multiple negotiations, and private and federal judicial mediations, we settled all claims for our client on a confidential basis.
  • Case Study

    Release of U.S. Prisoners Held Abroad

    Following our successful efforts to secure Alan Gross’s release from Cuban prison, we have played a key role in negotiating the release of three other Americans imprisoned abroad.  We negotiated directly with the Cuban government and obtained the release of an American who had served 15 years of a 25-year sentence for attempting to smuggle his family from Cuba to the U.S.  We were materially involved in a U.S.-Iran prisoner swap, which freed our client Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine initially sentenced to death and imprisoned for 5 years in Iran.  We also represented an American recently imprisoned in Vietnam for participating in a public demonstration.  He was released following our work with the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, the Vietnamese Embassy in D.C., the U.S. State Department, and Congress.
  • Case Study

    Eight-Figure Judgments Against Foreign Companies and Governments

    Our lawyers obtained a trial verdict and damages award in excess of $25 million against Chinese and Dubai companies for copyright infringement.
  • Case Study

    Mechanism to Allow First Imports into the U.S. of Cuban Products in 60 Years

    Our lawyers navigated U.S. Treasury and Commerce regulations, negotiated with U.S. distributors and banks, and negotiated agreements with the Cuban government to import Cuban artisanal charcoal into the United States.  The charcoal, produced by private cooperatives in Cuba, is the first Cuban product to be imported and sold in the United States since the Cuban revolution.
  • Case Study

    U.K. Schemes of Arrangement

    Working with insurance liquidation officials in London, which hosts a massive insurance marketplace covering U.S. and worldwide risks, our lawyers developed new protocols under existing U.K. statutes to ensure that reinsurance assets in insurer liquidation proceedings were recovered efficiently and were then equably distributed to policyholders.  The first such “scheme of arrangement” in 1993 was drafted for five related insurers known collectively as the KWELM companies, which insured more than $5 billion in anticipated claims.  The KWELM scheme of arrangement proved to be very successful and ultimately paid significant percentages of agreed claims up to 90% plus.  The KWELM template also established a creditors committee that included representatives of U.S. policyholders to ensure that U.S. policyholders’ interests were considered.  The scheme of arrangement protocols developed for KWELM formed the basis for a number of similar insurer insolvencies, including some that are still making payments to policyholders to this day.
  • Case Study

    Record-Breaking Settlement With State Insurance Guaranty Fund

    We prosecuted a claim against a state insurance guaranty fund and settled the case for the largest amount ever paid by that guaranty fund on a single policyholder claim.
  • Case Study

    Groundbreaking Ruling Against Insolvent Insurer

    We secured a $30 million judgment in an insurer liquidation proceeding requiring an insolvent insurer to estimate and pay our client’s future (so-called incurred-but-not-reported, or IBNR) tort claims.
  • Case Study

    Reform of Midland Liquidation Process

    Our attorneys led a group of policyholder attorneys in seeking changes in procedures to expedite payments in the Midland Insurance Company Liquidation, which were ultimately accepted by New York officials.  Our attorneys, again working cooperatively with other policyholder counsel, successfully litigated the issue of whether restrictive NY law applied to all claims submitted to Midland Liquidators or whether a choice-of-law decision should be made for each policyholder claim.  Agreed claims have been established under this decision and initial payments have been made to policyholders.
  • Case Study

    Over $1 Billion in Insurance Payments for Product Liability Claims

    We resolved all coverage issues and secured more than $1 billion in insurance for a multinational building materials company with significant mass tort liability.
  • Case Study

    $425 Million in Product Liability Coverage

    As insurance counsel to a Fortune 50 company facing multiple streams of product liability claims, we negotiated a $425 million insurance settlement with a group of twelve insurers to be utilized over ten years to pay defense and liability costs incurred on such claims.
  • Case Study

    Massive Insurance Recovery for Tort Defendant

    As the settlement team in insurance coverage litigation for a medical device manufacturer, our lawyers recovered more than $1.5 billion in insurance proceeds to pay claims against our client.
  • Case Study

    Pioneering Pursuit of Billions of Dollars in Mass Tort “Non-Products” Claims

    Through litigation in state and federal courts and arbitration fora, we pioneered the pursuit of so-called “non-products” coverage for mass tort bodily injury claims.  The insurance industry had attempted to restrict its obligations for mass tort bodily injury claims to so-called “products” coverage, which generally is subject to aggregate limits of liability.  In contrast, “non-products” coverage for such claims often is uncapped under the plain language of the insurance policies.  This distinction has resulted in billions of dollars of additional payments by insurers in mass tort bodily injury cases.
  • Case Study

    Litigation Resulting in Full Recovery from 19 Insurance Groups without Trial

    Our attorneys were insurance counsel to a large manufacturer of air-purifying respirators, heat-protective clothing, and other safety equipment in an action against its insurers for coverage of tort claims alleging personal injury from exposure to asbestos, silica, and coal-mine dust.  Our aggressive litigation and creative settlement approaches allowed us to resolve coverage issued by all 19 separate solvent carrier groups fully and favorably without trial.
  • Case Study

    Corporate Restructuring

    Our attorneys were insurance and risk management counsel to a public company with significant mass tort liability.  Working with co-counsel, we were instrumental in proposing and implementing a successful corporate restructuring plan that allowed our client to pursue business opportunities more effectively while simultaneously managing its mass tort exposure.
  • Case Study

    Insurance Settlement in Residual Value Coverage Dispute

    In the midst of a five-week arbitration, we recovered, through settlement, approximately $100 million for an automobile distributor seeking insurance coverage for residual value losses on a large portfolio of leased vehicles.  In the course of the dispute, we secured rulings that our client could pursue its claims directly against the reinsurers, bypassing its own captive insurer; and that our client was not bound by an unfavorable arbitration clause in the captive insurance contract because the clause did not apply to the reinsurers.
  • Case Study

    $200 Million Liability Insurance Recovery for Prominent International Law Firm

    We recovered more than $200 million through several mediations with our client’s insurers and the underlying plaintiff group, resulting in the resolution of all outstanding claims against our client.
  • Case Study

    Major E&O Recovery

    As insurance counsel to a post-bankruptcy trustee, we recovered nearly $50 million in E&O insurance coverage.
  • Case Study

    Oil-Spill Liability Fund Settlement

    Our lawyers negotiated a substantial settlement of a claim against a statutory oil-spill compensation fund in connection with one of the world’s largest oil spills in U.S. waters.