Davis+Gilbert LLP

Firm Overview:

Legal mastery is critical but not enough. Even the best legal strategies must work in tandem with your business realities. Davis+Gilbert’s industry focus and deep insight about the issues that drive your business enable us to provide solutions that make a difference.

Davis+Gilbert’s proactive, business-oriented approach stems from their long history of working with key industries not just as advocates but also as counselors. The firm helped guide the marketing communications ecosystem as it evolved from the early 20th century to today’s world of data, digital and social media. For many years, Davis+Gilbert has successfully applied that same see-around-corners vision and focus to real estate, financial services, hospitality, technology and other service sector industries, becoming the firm of choice for the market leaders of today and tomorrow.

From its base in New York, Davis+Gilbert represents a diverse range of clients across the country and around the world.

Advertising + Marketing

Their firm grew up with the advertising industry, from its earliest beginnings through every stage of its exponential growth. The firm has been witness to, and a key participant in, the evolution of advertising and marketing law and the remarkable proliferation of related industries that now form the vast marketing ecosystem. From advertising agencies to major brands, from content creators to tech-forward digital platforms, whether the firm's clients are global, publicly traded companies or two-person startups, they depend on Davis+Gilbert to help achieve business goals, protect their rights and minimize their legal risks.

Bankruptcy, Creditors' Rights + Finance

The last financial crisis shined a harsh light on the legal exposure of lenders, loan servicers, sponsors and trustees, when investors and other participants in the credit markets incurred losses. The collapse of the subprime mortgage securitization market, in particular, brought a wave of litigation — by investors and deal counterparties claiming contractual breaches and outright fraud — that continues to this day. This litigation has created a roadmap for new plaintiffs to follow, escalating the stakes for defendants.

The firm's attorneys have been actively representing participants in the credit markets and the litigation they face, gaining deep experience in protecting and enforcing their rights at each stage of a market’s evolution.

Benefits + Compensation

Aside from being one of the top expense items on the books, a company’s employee benefits and compensation packages go to the heart of attracting and retaining a strong workforce. That said, these items all operate in a stringent regulatory environment where small mistakes can carry large liabilities.

The firm's benefits and compensation attorneys understand the business practicalities that drive benefits and compensation issues and decisions. The firm's clients count on them to design and implement plans that strike the right balance of compliance, cost and administrative ease.

Corporate + Transactions

For companies of all sizes and across all industries, effective growth strategies are key drivers of success in the marketplace. The firm's transactional attorneys get deeply involved in understanding the business and strategic thinking of their clients, and they take a pragmatic yet long-term approach to determining how they can best support their growth. From early-stage start-ups to global Fortune 100 companies, their attorneys tend to the full range of their clients’ corporate, financial and transactional needs.

Intellectual Property + Media

For companies in a number of dynamic industries — particularly media, entertainment and sports — constant change is a given. As the lines between these fields continue to converge and cross, new legal challenges arise, especially in intellectual property law.

Their Intellectual Property and Media practice has for decades been on the front lines of the seismic shift from traditional to digital media, and they are amply equipped to help clients address intellectual property challenges in ways both conventional and innovative. Companies look to Davis+Gilbert to understand their brands, prioritize their concerns and help them navigate the legal and regulatory risks they face in markets that are constantly redefining themselves.

Labor + Employment

For companies where employees and their talents are by far the most important assets, the business ramifications of labor and employment law hold special weight. Their labor and employment attorneys are uniquely attuned to the practical aspects of managing and retaining essential employees. The firm serves as primary employment counsel for businesses throughout the United States in various industries, tending to the day-to-day legal aspects of their employee relations.

Litigation + Dispute Resolution

The most complex and hardest-fought legal cases tend to center around people, their ideas, their contracts or their workplaces. These disputes frequently involve the movement of talent between competitors, workplace claims, the ownership of intellectual property, false and deceptive marketing practices, the rights and responsibilities of the parties to corporate transactions and controversies over commercial leasing. The firm's litigation and disputes attorneys handle matters in each of these areas. The firm assesses risk, secures favorable resolutions, and forcefully pursues their clients’ interests through trial and appeals. Their clients include major players in the marketing communications, e-commerce, financial services, hospitality and commercial leasing sectors. The firm also represents prominent advertisers, agencies and their brands.

Privacy, Technology + Data Security

The increasingly intertwined concerns of privacy and data security continue to cast a long shadow over the business models of companies in nearly every industry. Both concerns carry considerable risk — legal, financial and reputational — but with proper attention to the statutory and contractual requirements that underlie and inform the risk, they can be turned to competitive advantage. Their attorneys work with data-driven businesses of all kinds to identify and address the compliance risks associated with data flowing in and out of their organizations, advising clients on best practices, assessing their contracts, preventing and responding to data breaches and providing defense in litigation and enforcement actions.

When it comes to technology, today every business is a technology business, constantly entering into contractual arrangements involving a broad array of evolving technologies, including AI, SaaS platforms and ad tech services. Accordingly, Davis+Gilbert's attorneys regularly draft contracts for innovation-forward companies in virtually every industry sector, including advertising, e-commerce, financial services, manufacturing, hospitality, retail, entertainment, media and real estate. These extend to technology development, licensing, purchases, sales and joint ventures. To each transaction, they bring a deep understanding of both the technology and the underlying business.

Private Client Services

Davis+Gilbert’s private client services practice counsels business owners, executives, hedge fund principals and other successful individuals and families in a variety of issues impacting their personal and business decisions, including business succession issues, estate planning, charitable giving and trust and estate administration.

Real Estate

Their real estate lawyers represent tenants and landlords, as well as buyers and sellers of all sizes, at every stage in the real estate life cycle. Long dominant in the fast-paced New York City real estate market, they have become a key player in national markets as their clients’ interests have expanded. Their reputation for toughness and fairness has earned repeat business from sophisticated clients that value a win-win deal where all parties get what they need.