Kathleen Gallagher focuses her practice on complex commercial litigation, with an emphasis in contract disputes, business fraud, and employment claims. She has extensive experience in complex construction and engineering litigation, telecom litigation, wage and hour class actions, mass tort and products liability claims, government contract disputes, as well as in the areas of personal injury, and insurance defense and coverage. Katie regularly handles claims alleging breach of contract, negligence, fraud, misrepresentation, breach of warranties, discrimination and retaliation, and professional liability. She also has experience defending against product liability claims involving FDA-regulated products, which asserted the company failed to provide adequate warnings under FDA regulations, as well as defending corporate clients against personal injury claims alleging toxic/environmental exposure. She has represented a wide range of clients, from individuals to Fortune 500 companies, in the commercial and residential construction, telecommunications, insurance, petrochemical, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries.
Katie is an experienced trial lawyer in both bench and jury trials, including complex multi-party trials and multi-jurisdictional claims, as well as mediation, arbitration, and settlement negotiations at the state and federal level. She routinely works with apex corporate witnesses and expert witnesses in preparing them for deposition and trial testimony. She also has experience in all aspects of complex electronic discovery, and counsels clients through the process to avoid privilege issues and protect proprietary and confidential information. Katie guides clients through every phase of litigation, including initial case assessment and strategy, written discovery, motions hearings, depositions, and trials.
Representative Experience
Any result the lawyer or law firm may have achieved on behalf of clients in other matters does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients.
- Defended general contractor and engineer of record against alleged breach of contract, professional negligence, and fraud claims arising from the design, engineering, and construction of a nearly $1 billion-dollar ammonia plant expansion project.
- As part of a bifurcated matter, served as trial defense counsel for a major engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) contractor against sub-contractor’s claim for $10M in alleged unpaid bills for non-conforming work. Obtained full defense verdict for client.
- Defended major cosmetics manufacturer in multi-jurisdictional products liability actions.
- Defended multinational pharmaceutical company against products liability claims, which asserted that the company failed to provide adequate warnings under FDA regulations.
- Trial defense counsel for a general contractor against alleged breach of contract, misrepresentation, and defective workmanship claims in Maryland state court.
- Obtained a favorable settlement of alleged breach of contract and negligence claims against subcontractor related to Port of Baltimore expansion project.
Honors & Awards
- Recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America (BL Rankings), Litigation - Construction and Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions - Defendants, 2023
- Recognized in Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers - Rising Stars (Thompson Reuters) (2019-2020; 2022-2024)
- Selected to the Maryland Rising Stars list by Super Lawyers (Thomson Reuters), Civil Litigation, Construction Litigation, 2019-2020