Gilbert Leeds
gsl@spsk.com

Gilbert Leeds is a partner of Schenck, Price, Smith & King’s Litigation Department, and is chair of the Department. He is an experienced Certified Civil Trial Attorney engaged in a wide variety of litigated matters. His areas of expertise include corporate and commercial litigation, professional liability suits in which he defends insurance agents and brokers, attorneys, physicians and other medical personnel, insurance defense, product liability, employment law and lender liability. He has also been included on the roster of court-approved mediators through the Administrative Office of the Courts, and he serves as an arbitrator and mediator both privately and through various court programs. As Department chair, Mr. Leeds oversees the firm's litigation practice and co-chairs its Insurance/Product Defense practice group.

Mr. Leeds represents a number of national manufacturing companies and insurance carriers. He handles substantial insurance defense, professional E&O claims and employment defense matters for Westport Insurance, Pennsylvania Lumbermens Mutual, Franklin Mutual, Farmers Mutual, Hartford Insurance, medical malpractice defense for Atlantic Health System and its medical staff and lender liability lawsuits for HSBC Auto Finance. He currently serves as national coordinating counsel for Pennsylvania Lumbermens Mutual for its construction defect cases across the country. His product liability clients include companies involved in the propane and outdoor power equipment industries and a variety of commercial and home appliance and equipment manufacturers. Over his career he has represented Raytheon, Electrolux, Amana, Frigidaire, Tappan, Murray of Ohio and Cavagna North America, a propane component manufacturer for whom Mr. Leeds is national coordinating counsel.

Mr. Leeds is a member of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Sections on Litigation and Tort and Insurance Practice (TIPS). He is also a member of the Propane Gas Defense Association and the Defense Research Institute (DRI) including the Product Liability Section and the Professional Liability Committee. He has lectured before the Independent Insurance Agents of New Jersey as well as published a number of articles in its monthly magazine. Mr. Leeds has authored articles titled “Claims Against Insurance Producers on the Rise,” “Spoliation of Evidence, a Trump Card for Manufacturers,” “Discovering and Preserving Electronic Evidence” and “The Innocent Retailer” that appeared in the New Jersey Law Journal. He has spoken at several ICLE seminars, including a presentation on “Hot Topics in Product Liability.” He has also authored a monograph on the spoliation of evidence doctrine for the Chemical and Industrial Manufacturers Subcommittee of the ABA's Section on Litigation.

Active in a variety of civic areas, Mr. Leeds has been a long-time Board member and a former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Morris County Chapter of the American Red Cross. For many years, he served as a member of the Board of Adjustment of Randolph Township, a member of the Corporation of the United Way, the Morris County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Randolph Soccer Club. He currently sits on the Board of the Morris Area YMCA and is the chair of the Morris County Bar Association’s Arbitration Selection Committee. He is an active hospice volunteer at Homeless Solutions, making meals and performing other volunteer activities, and for the Visiting Nurse Association, providing volunteer care for hospice patients and meals for homebound individuals.

After receiving his undergraduate degree from Clark University in 1973, Mr. Leeds attended Rutgers Law School, where he received his law degree in 1978. He then served a one year judicial clerkship with the Honorable John Marzulli before joining Schenck, Price, Smith & King, LLP in 1979.

Mr. Leeds was recognized in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 by New Jersey Monthly magazine as one of New Jersey’s “Super Lawyers”. ^*

Bar Admissions:

• New Jersey (1978)

^* For more information about the Super Lawyers selection process, please go to: Super Lawyers. No aspect of this advertising has been approved by the New Jersey Supreme Court.

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