Robert B. Gilbreath

Rob Gilbreath is a senior partner in Hawkins Parnell Thackston & Young LLP’s litigation department and serves as Appellate and Legal Issues Practice Group Leader.  He has handled more than 200 appeals in a wide variety of areas, including trust and estates, personal injury, breach of contract, breach of warranty, breach of fiduciary duties, fraud, family law, oil and gas, contempt of court, arbitration, government regulation, defamation, RICO, shareholder oppression, and Lanham Act false advertising claims. After graduating from law school, Rob served a year as law clerk at the Texas Supreme Court.  He is Board Certified in Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and is the former Chair of the Board’s Appellate Exam Commission, which drafts and grades the appellate certification exam.  He is also a founding member and trustee of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society. Rob has handled or assisted with appeals and original proceedings in Texas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina; the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fifth, and Eleventh Circuits; and the United States Supreme Court.  He has argued over 90 cases before the Fifth Circuit, the Eleventh Circuit, the Supreme Court of Texas, the New York Court of Appeals (the state's highest appellate court), the Arizona Supreme Court, the Georgia Supreme Court, Pennsylvania's court of appeals (the Superior Court), the Georgia Court of Appeals, the Florida Court of Appeals, and most of the fourteen intermediate appellate courts in Texas. Rob has prevailed in numerous important cases in the Texas Supreme Court. For example, in 2014 the Court issued a landmark decision on shareholder oppression claims. Ruling in favor of Rob’s clients, the Court held that there is no common-law claim for shareholder oppression, narrowly redefined “oppression” for purposes of statutory oppression claims, eliminated the buyout remedy for statutory oppression claims, and rendered judgment that the plaintiff take nothing on her shareholder oppression claim. The decision has been called the most important decision of the Texas Supreme Court's 2013-2014 term. In 2011, Rob’s successful representation in the Texas Supreme Court of a client accused of contempt earned him a front-page story in the Texas Lawyer newspaper.  In 2016, his win in the Texas Supreme Court for a client whose settlement proceeds were stolen by her lawyer also earned him a front-page story in the Texas Lawyer. And his 2009 Texas Supreme Court victory for a large homebuilder client seeking insurance coverage was also covered by the Texas Lawyer as a groundbreaking development in the law. In addition to handling cases in the appellate courts, Rob assists with error preservation, complex motions, and pleadings in the trial courts.  He often attends trial to help litigators preserve error, particularly in the jury instructions/court’s charge.  He has been responsible for preserving error in numerous multimillion-dollar, complex cases, including two where the jury’s verdict exceeded $300,000,.