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, 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. 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. 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 manufactures. 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. He engages in substantial insurance defense and professional E&O claims work for Westport Insurance, Pennsylvania Lumbermens Mutual, Franklin Mutual and Farmers Mutual, medical malpractice defense for the Atlantic Health System and its medical staff and defends lender liability lawsuits for HSBC Auto Finance. Mr. Leeds serves as an arbitrator and mediator both privately and through various court programs.

Mr. Leeds is a member of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Sections on Litigation and Tort and Insurance Practice (TIPS). He sits on the ABA Litigation Section's Committees on Health Law Litigation, Products Liability Litigation and Corporate Counsel and sub-committees on Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices, Chemical and Industrial Equipment Litigation. He is an active 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 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 the Morris County Bar Association’s Committee on Judicial and Prosecutorial Appointments and the Committee for Arbitration Selection. He is an active volunteer at Homeless Solutions, making meals and performing other volunteer activities.

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 and 2008 by New Jersey Monthly magazine as one of New Jersey’s “Super Lawyers”. ^*

Bar Admissions:

• New Jersey (1978)