Houston-based boutique Gibbs & Bruns is nationally acclaimed as a foremost litigation and trial force, this year marking the fifth in which the firm has been recognized as one of Benchmark’s Top 20 Trial Firms. Offering both plaintiff and defendant representation, the firm deals exclusively in business and commercial litigation, undertaking the most onerous and critical of these matters on the behalf of clients from, inter alia, the sectors of banking, energy, technology, and financial services.
Long standing as both a firm hallmark and trial authority, Robin Gibbs boasts more than 45 years of experience in commercial litigation, his practice largely emphasizing matters of the contractual and energy types. Gibbs currently serves as lead trial counsel to midstream energy services provider Enterprise Products Operating LLC in complex engineering and construction litigation in connection with the construction by Enterprise of the world’s largest propylene dehydrogenation facility, located in Mont Belvieu, Texas. Enterprise, after entering into an EPC contract with Amec Foster Wheeler USA Corp. (AFW) for all phases of the build from design to installation, was allegedly the recipient of acutely and chronically erroneous and negligent work by AFW at all levels of engineering and construction, resulting in more than $1 billion in cost overruns. Several years later, Enterprise fully terminated its EPC contract shortly after entering into a transition services agreement and subsequently filed suit for numerous claims against AFW and its parent company, Amec Foster Wheeler Plc (Amec), including breach of contract and warranty, fraudulent inducement, string-along fraud, and gross and professional negligence, among others. Though the matter is still in the ongoing phases of a lengthy trial that is expected to span a period of more than four months, the firm’s lead counsel team, on which Gibbs is joined at the helm by complex commercial, intellectual property, and securities litigator Mark Giugliano, has so far been successful in fending off motions by Amec and AFW to strike Enterprise’s certificate of merit and dismiss the case, the defendant’s contestation of jurisdiction and motion for rehearing, and the resulting United States Supreme Court petition by Amec and AFW for writ of certiorari. Giugliano and Gibbs are joined on the matter by notable, developing complex commercial litigator Ayesha Najam. Also emphasizing energy in her practice, Kathy Patrick has for more than 37 years stood out among securities and complex commercial litigators and has been recognized by Benchmark as among the nation’s Top 250 Women in Litigation for over a decade. Patrick currently serves as lead counsel to Richard Moncrief, the son of legendary oil magnate William “Tex” Moncrief, in a probate matter brought by other members of the family regarding the late, elder Moncrief’s naming his son as the sole beneficiary of his will totaling more than $1 billion in assets. Meanwhile, complex commercial veteran Barrett Reasoner represents Waste Management of Texas, Inc. and its parent company Waste Management, Inc. as lead trial counsel on matters brought by more than 600 individual plaintiffs, alleging over $700 million in property damages and personal injury ostensibly as a result of more than 40 years of discharge from an abandoned paper mill waste site into the San Jacinto River.
