Robert B. Krakow

Robert B. Krakow is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Dallas office, focusing on business litigation at both the trial and appellate levels. He is Co-Chair of the firm's Healthcare and Life Sciences Practice Group and a member of the firm's Litigation Department and the Business Restructuring and Reorganization Practice Groups. Mr. Krakow has substantial trial experience on behalf of major corporations, as well as debtors and creditors in significant bankruptcy cases. Mr. Krakow has also successfully argued many appeals before state and federal courts.

When a psychiatric hospital company pled guilty to paying kickbacks to referring physicians and its parent entity paid several hundred million dollars to the government to settle civil claims, thousands of lawsuits were filed against the parent entity and various subsidiaries by prominent trial lawyers across the United States on behalf of former patients who alleged that they were improperly admitted and/or treated as a result of the criminal misconduct. Mr. Krakow led the defense of the parent entity. After several defense verdicts were obtained, one of which was recognized by the National Law Journal as the Defense Win of the Year, the remaining cases were quickly resolved.

Mr. Krakow has successfully defended a major health company in a variety of matters including False Claims Act, antitrust, RICO and securities litigation. He obtained summary judgment for the former general counsel of a major health care company in a high profile and unprecedented False Claims Act case brought by the United States, seeking to hold the lawyer personally responsible for allegedly false claims submitted by one of the company’s hospitals.

Recognized as one of The Best Lawyers in America® for bankruptcy litigation, Mr. Krakow has served as counsel for debtors such as First RepublicBank Corporation, Financial News Network, Hawaiian Airlines and Southmark Corporation in their chapter 11 proceedings. Mr. Krakow led the efforts to recover more than $80 million from former directors and officers and outside advisors of Zale Corporation, more than $25 million from former directors and advisors of a bankrupt Pennsylvania healthcare system in a lawsuit brought in tandem with the Pennsylvania Attorney General alleging that endowment and other restricted assets had been misappropriated to pay operating expenses prior to the bankruptcy, and more than $13 million from the former controlling shareholders of Southmark Corporation. Mr. Krakow represented Independence Air in litigation over the value of its proof of claim in the United Airlines bankruptcy. After defeating the creditor's committee assertion that Independence should have no claim, Independence was awarded a claim amount of $750 million, resulting in a distribution to Independence in excess of $125 million. He currently serves as lead litigation counsel for Lehman Brothers Finance in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy case.

Mr. Krakow is a magna cum laude graduate of Duke University, and received his law degree from Duke in 1981. He is licensed to practice in all federal and state courts in the state of Texas as well as numerous federal courts of appeal, and is a Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation.