Overview
Mr. Gordon has over thirty-five years of experience representing domestic and foreign interests in complex business disputes throughout the United States. A significant portion of his practice includes commercial arbitration and related judicial proceedings. He has litigated a broad range of subject matters, including purchase price disputes and indemnification claims arising out of the purchase and sale of businesses, disputes under partnership and joint venture agreements, claims arising from the purchase and sale of securities, accounting matters and contract interpretation.
In addition, since the mid-1990s, Mr. Gordon has devoted a substantial portion of his practice to insurance and reinsurance matters. He advises clients with respect to property and casualty, professional liability, financial institutions, D&O, E&O, bad faith, aviation, clash, contingency, excess of loss, retrocessional, facultative, pools, aggregate extension, accumulation, allocation, ECO/XPL exposures, and other issues. In addition to his representation of insurers and reinsurers, Mr. Gordon also serves as an arbitrator with respect to reinsurance disputes.
He has been recognized by Chambers USA. He has also been recognized by Legal 500 in the area of Litigation-International Arbitration.
Speaking Engagements
Panelist, ARIAS Arbitrator Training Seminar – “Case Development and Preparing for the Arbitration Hearing” (May 2010)
Panelist, ARIAS U.S. Spring Conference – “Improving the Reinsurance Arbitration Process” (May 2005)
Professional Affiliations
- Member, ARIAS–US
Experience
- Prior to joining Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss, Mr. Gordon was a partner in a large New York-based international law firm, where he spent twenty-nine years.
Representative Matters
- Represented London market reinsurers in numerous domestic arbitrations and related judicial proceedings concerning coverage for asbestos products and non-products losses of various domestic cedents under reinsurance and retrocessional contracts
- Obtained appellate reversal of bankruptcy court order denying foreign liquidators access to attorney-client communications and work-product generated in connection with pre-liquidation audit committee internal investigation
- Successfully represented London market insurers in connection with jurisdictional issues arising in federal court lawsuit concerning coverage disputes arising from construction work site accident
- Obtained substantial pre-litigation settlement of claims on behalf of a CDO note holder against collateral manager for losses arising from breach of management agreement
- Defended the managing underwriting agent for a group of aviation reinsurers in arbitrations and litigations arising out of the termination of the management agreements following the 9/11 attacks
- Obtained court order on behalf of London insurer compelling arbitration in the UK of coverage disputes and rescission claims concerning excess layer insurance policy issued to US company engaged in the production and sale of pharmaceutical products
- Successfully represented manager of US subsidiary of French bank in arbitration and litigation concerning entitlement to and value of phantom equity
- Obtained summary judgment on behalf of London market insurers in pollution coverage dispute in California state court
- Obtained summary judgment on behalf of domestic cedent in state court litigation concerning allocation of losses
- Served as party-appointed arbitrator in reinsurance coverage dispute concerning aviation losses arising out of the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center
- Served as party-appointed arbitrator in dispute concerning asbestos-related losses under facultative reinsurance contracts
- Served as party-appointed arbitrator in dispute concerning pharmaceutical losses under excess of loss reinsurance contracts
- Represented large government contractor in lawsuit against the State of New York involving contract pricing dispute
Publications & Events
- July 1, 2014
- September 26, 2012
- March 2012
- June 16, 2009
In the News
Chambers and Partners has again ranked Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss as a leading law firm in the area of insurance.
June 2022Jack Gordon of LBKM, alongside Human Rights First and Reprieve US, filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the petitioner in Abdulsalam Ali Abdulrahman al-Hela v. Biden in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The case's central question is whether the Constitution’s Due Process Clause extends to individuals detained at Guantanamo Bay. Mr. al Hela has been held at Guantanamo without charge or trial since 2004.
July 6, 2021At first blush, class actions might seem an attractive option for courts to efficiently manage the burden the claims may impose on their dockets. But below the surface, there are significant doubts that these claims are suitable for class adjudication.
New York Law Journal, June 1, 2020Jack Gordon and Mark Leimkuhler authored an article in Insurance Day discussing potential issues for reinsurers relating to the coronavirus crisis.
Insurance Day, April 22, 2020The pundits will debate whether government delays enabled the coronavirus to spread so widely. Perhaps experts and politicians failed to implement earlier, less onerous measures that could have slowed its spread and lessened its impact because the eventual scope seemed unimaginable to them. It was only after the pandemic was well underway that decision makers acted with great urgency — too late to avoid crisis and hardship.
There is a similar lesson for insurers and reinsurers: the potential for an unprecedented avalanche of COVID-19 insurance claims is clear, and the industry can and should take steps now, without waiting for specific claims and losses, to blunt the impact of the wave of claims and lawsuits that has already begun and is rapidly expanding.
Law360, April 10, 2020Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP must turn over documents relating to its former representation of two failed Platinum Partners hedge funds to the Cayman Islands-based liquidators who are now winding the funds down, a New York bankruptcy judge said Thursday over the firm's objections. The liquidators are represented by Jack Gordon and Bruce Grace.
Law360, November 1, 2018- Law360, October 1, 2015
- US class action lawsuit alleges high-frequency traders, exchanges, brokers and dark pool operators have committed securities law violationsInsurance Day, August 21, 2014
- Law360, September 25, 2012
Practice Areas
Education
- George Washington University Law School (J.D., magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, 1979), Member, The George Washington Law Review
- State University of New York at Albany (B.A., magna cum laude, 1976)
Bar Admissions
- District of Columbia
- New York
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Fourth, Ninth, District of Columbia and Federal Circuits
- U.S. District Courts for the District of Maryland, District of Columbia, Southern District of New York, and Eastern District of New York
- U.S. Court of Federal Claims