John A. Gibbons

Biography

CO-CHAIR, INSURANCE RECOVERY PRACTICE GROUP

John Gibbons is a partner in Blank Rome’s policyholder-only insurance recovery practice, formerly the insurance practice of Dickstein Shapiro LLP. His national practice focuses on advising corporate policyholders about their insurance policy rights and recovery insurance assets, either through negotiation or trial.

John maintains a particularly active trial practice that includes serving as trial counsel for a Fortune 100 pharmaceutical company in a four-month trial, a Fortune 500 regulated utility in two separate multiweek jury trials, and a large multinational engineering services corporation in a multiweek jury trial involving more than $250 million of insurance. John’s trial practice includes matters under Liability, Property, Cargo, Trade-Credit/Credit Risk, and Representation & Warranty insurance policies. In addition to his trial practice, John guides clients through the insurance claim process, negotiating favorable resolutions for his policyholder clients.

John is a principal author of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Insurance Primer/InfoPak, including editions released from 2012 to present. John is recognized by Chambers, Benchmark, Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, and Euromoney for his professional accomplishments.

In the past decade, John has, through negotiations, litigation, and trial verdicts, enforced clients’ rights to well over a billion dollars’ worth of insurance. Recently, he has focused his attention on emerging areas of interest for policyholders, including risks attendant to international business operations, assertions of various forms of financial and property losses, liabilities for business operations and conduct, and product liability and environmental liability issues.

News & Views

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Recognitions

  • 2023–2025, Litigation – Insurance in Washington, D.C., listed in Best Lawyers in America©
  • 2015–2025, Insurance Law in Washington, D.C., listed in Best Lawyers in America©
  • 2022–2025, “Top 500 Leading Litigators in America,” listed in Lawdragon
  • 2021–2025, “Litigation Star,” listed in Benchmark Litigation
  • 2014–2024, Washington, D.C., “Super Lawyer” in Insurance Coverage, listed in Super Lawyers
  • 2017–2024, Insurance: Policyholder Law (D.C.), listed in Chambers USA
  • 2012, 2017–2018, 2020–2024, listed in The Legal 500 United States
  • 2022, listed in Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll
  • 2018–2019, 2021, listed in Euromoney’s Insurance and Reinsurance Expert Guide
  • 2014, listed in Benchmark Litigation
  • 2013, listed in Benchmark Plaintiff

Affiliations

Professional Activities

John is a Fellow of the American College of Coverage Counsel (“ACCC”), an invitation-only organization dedicated to improving the quality of the practice of insurance law and to increasing civility and professionalism in the field. The ACCC engages in a rigorous vetting process prior to inviting a lawyer to become a Fellow, with its members including many of the most prominent advocates in the insurance law bar.

Credentials

Admissions

  • District of Columbia
  • Maryland
  • U.S. District Court - District of Columbia
  • U.S. District Court - Maryland
  • United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
  • United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

Education

  • University of Maryland, BA
  • Catholic University of America, JD