Brian M Gottesman

Brian M. Gottesman is a partner in the Delaware office of Gabell Beaver. He has extensive experience counseling corporations and closely-held alternative entities (including limited liability companies, Delaware statutory trusts, and limited partnerships) on issues relating to their governance and management.

Brian has served as counsel in acquisitions, business formations, the establishment of subsidiaries and holding companies and sales of assets and equitable interests. He also provides opinions on Delaware law relating to limited liability companies, business trusts and other Delaware entities involved in real estate acquisitions, structured finance deals, business mergers and other transactions.

In addition to his transaction work, Brian has extensive experience with litigation in Delaware courts, particularly in the Court of Chancery. Brian has represented clients in breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and business divorce actions, as well as a wide array of other corporate and commercial litigation matters. He is certified as a court-appointed mediator by the Delaware Superior Court and is a member of the Panel of Distinguished Neutrals of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution. Brian has served as both counsel and as third-party neutral in a wide array of arbitration and mediation matters. He also serves as an expert witness in litigation involving Delaware business organizations.

Brian graduated from Harvard Law School in 2003. From 2003 to 2010, he was a member of the Business Law and Venture Capital practice groups at the law firm of Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz LLP. From 2010 until 2021, Brian was a partner at the law firm of Berger Harris LLP, where he worked with clients ranging from multinational conglomerates to single-member startups on a wide range of litigation and transactional matters.

Brian has written numerous articles dealing with limited liability companies and Delaware statutory trusts, as well as the history of trade and trade law. He was the general editor and co-author of the Delaware Statutory Trusts Manual (Matthew Bender, 2010), and a co-author and co-editor of Litigating the Business Divorce (BNA, 2016).

Brian is also active in the community. He has served pro bono as an attorney guardian ad litem for the Office of the Child Advocate since 2005. Brian is a member of the Richard S. Rodney Inn of Court and the Carpenter-Walsh Pro Bono Inn of Court, and served from 2004 until 2009 as an Associate Member of the Delaware Board of Bar Examiners. He is also a past member of the Board of Trustees of Albert Einstein Academy.