BARRY L. GERSTMAN, PARTNER

Direct: 212.952.1103
Fax: 212.952.1110
[email protected]

Partner Barry Gerstman is a client-focused, trial attorney who has spent his career defending complex civil litigation matters with an emphasis on construction litigation, product liability, fire and explosion matters, catastrophic injury cases and recall litigation. His clients include manufacturers, distributors and retailers of consumer and commercial appliances, electronic equipment, industrial machinery and heavy equipment, medical products, and children´s products. Mr. Gerstman has significant experience counseling foreign manufacturers involved in U.S. product liability litigation. He serves as national counsel to an international manufacturer of electrical products and to an international manufacturer of consumer appliances. In the construction area, Mr. Gerstman represents numerous owners, design professionals and engineers, general contractors, construction managers and subcontractors in construction defect and workplace injury litigation and serves as regional counsel to several engineering firms. He has several reported decisions on New York Labor Law §§ 200, 240 and 241. He also provides risk-management counseling to corporate clients including vehicle and truck manufacturers.

Mr. Gerstman has authored articles published in the respected Defense Research Institute´s For the Defense, The Voice, Trial Tactics and Product Liability newsletters and has also made presentations on product liability and complex civil litigation matters for the Defense Research Institute and Lorman.

Mr. Gerstman has tried cases to verdict in state and federal courts. He has conducted Daubert and Frye hearings and has written and successfully argued numerous dispositive motions and appeals that have resulted in dismissals in favor of his clients. He was co-lead counsel for a vehicle manufacturer on a notable and highly publicized Frye/Daubert decision where the court precluded the introduction of computer generated crash data to support the alleged feasibility of an alternative design.

Membership

Mr. Gerstman is a member of the bars of the State of New York, the United States District Court of the Southern, Eastern and Northern Districts of New York, the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He is also a member of the American Bar Association and the Defense Research Institute - Product Liability and Construction Law Committees.

Publications

"The Consumer Product Safety Information Database, Challenging the Publication of 'Materially Inaccurate Information,'" For the Defense, November, 2015
"The Reasonably Prudent Robot: Emerging Liability Issues Involving Autonomous Vehicles," DRI, The Voice, May 2015
"Pre-Suit Claims Against Component Suppliers," DRI, For the Defense, November 2011.
"Consumer Product Safety Commission Approves Mandatory Recall Notice Guidelines," Products Liability Newsletter, February 2010.
"Trial Technology: Not Just for Seven-Figure Cases Anymore," DRI Trials and Tribulations, Winter 2003.

Presentations

"A Practical Guide for Using Litigation Technology During Discovery and at Trial," presented at Lorman, May 2009.
"Legal Sherpa - Tips for Safely Guiding Foreign Defendants Through U.S. Consumer Product Liability Litigation," presented at the Defense Research Institute's Product Liability Conference, February 2008.
"Home Grown Tech," interview of Mr. Gerstman published in Law Office Computing, June/July 2004.
"Case Developments in Heavy Machinery Litigation," Heavy Machinery Product Liability Conference, Tokio Marine Claims Service, Las Vegas, November 2003.

Admissions

New York
U.S. District Court, (E.D.N.Y.)
U.S. District Court, (S.D.N.Y.)
U.S. District Court, (N.D.N.Y.)
U.S. District Court, (Central District of Illinois)
Second Circuit Court of Appeals

Education

J.D. (1993) Brooklyn Law School
B.A. (1990) State University of New York at Albany