Pamela Gilbert

Pamela Gilbert has been a named partner in Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca, LLP, and its immediate predecessor firm, since 2003.  Ms. Gilbert focuses her practice on government relations matters.  Ms. Gilbert represents a wide variety of clients before Congress, the executive branch and regulatory agencies.  Ms. Gilbert is one of the leading advocates in Washington, DC working to preserve access to the civil justice system for both individuals and businesses.  Ms. Gilbert’s work at CGL has achieved notable successes, including:

• Ms. Gilbert represented the non-profit Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety (CARS) in successfully lobbying for passage of the “Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act,” which was signed into law by President Obama on December 4, 2015.  The Act is named for two sisters who were ages 20 and 24 when they were killed by an unrepaired recalled rental car.  Gilbert worked closely with CARS and Cally Houck, Raechel and Jacqueline’s mother, and together they won, despite significant political opposition. The Act prohibits rental car companies from renting, selling, or loaning vehicles with unrepaired safety recall defects.

• Ms. Gilbert represented the antitrust plaintiffs’ bar in successful efforts to enact, preserve and strengthen provisions of the Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Act (ACPERA) that provide reduced damages for antitrust violators who provide full and timely cooperation to private plaintiffs.

• Ms. Gilbert represented SawStop, LLC, the inventor and manufacturer of table saws that incorporate safety technology that stops the saw from spinning in milliseconds when it comes in contact with human skin, thereby preventing amputations and serious lacerations. Saws without this safety technology cause over 4,000 amputations annually, which is more than 10 amputations every day.  Ms. Gilbert worked with SawStop and consumer organizations to persuade the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to begin a rulemaking, which is ongoing, to require that active safety mitigation technology be included on every table saw sold in the U.S.

Ms. Gilbert’s current advocacy work includes:

• Acting as executive director and legislative counsel for the Committee to Support the Antitrust Laws (COSAL), an association of over 40 plaintiffs’ antitrust law firms, promoting support for and strengthening of the private enforcement of the antitrust laws;
• Representing the American Association for Justice (AAJ), a national association of trial lawyers, in efforts before Congress to promote a fair and effective civil justice system. Her current work includes ensuring that people who are injured or killed by defective and unsafe self-driving cars can bring lawsuits to recover for their losses and advocating for the right to bring claims in the public court system instead of being forced into a private, rigged arbitration system with no right to appeal.
• Representing the Center for Climate Integrity to ensure that the oil and gas industry is not immunized from accountability for its campaign of deception and disinformation that led to the climate crisis.

Ms. Gilbert has over 35 years of experience in consumer advocacy in Washington, DC.  She has testified over 50 times and has made dozens of appearances in the national print and electronic media.  She served as the leader of President Obama’s transition team for the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Ms. Gilbert served as Executive Director of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (1995-2001), the agency’s senior staff position.  She supervised a staff of approximately 500, including 25 attorneys; was responsible for the full range of government management issues; and helped increase funding to the agency by nearly 40 percent.

Ms. Gilbert also served as Consumer Program Director at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, and served as Legislative Director and Executive Director at Public Citizen’s Congress Watch, one of Washington’s largest consumer advocacy organizations.

Ms. Gilbert received the 2019 Public Interest Network’s Alumni Achievement Award and was chosen as Consumer Advocate of the Year by the Trial Lawyers’ Association of Metropolitan Washington in 1995.  She is currently Chair of the Board of the American Antitrust Institute and a Board Member of the National Consumers League.

Education

• J.D., New York University (1984) Root-Tilden Scholarship Recipient
• B.A. (magna cum laude), Tufts University (1980)

Substantive Practice Areas

• Antitrust
• Consumer Protection
• Government Relations
• Product Liability
• Access to Justice

Bar Admissions

• District of Columbia

Professional Affiliations

• American Antitrust Institute (Board Chair)
• American Association for Justice
• American Bar Association
• District of Columbia Bar Association
• Equal Justice Works (past member of the Board of Directors)
• National Consumers League (Current board member)
• National Environmental Law Center (Past member of the Board of Directors)
• Public Justice
• Project on Government Oversight (Past member of the Board of Directors)

In The News