Gerald Lawrence, Partner

Phone: 610-941-2760
Fax: 610-862-9777
E-mail: glawrence@lowey.com
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Pennsylvania Office
Four Tower Bridge
200 Barr Harbor Drive, Suite 400
West Conshohocken, PA 19428

Mr. Lawrence is a partner and head of the firm's Pennsylvania Office. He represents third-party payers including major health insurers and HMOs, employers and health and pharmacy benefits plans and recovers on their behalf from providers who overcharge for prescription drugs, medical devices or services.  In addition, he represents institutions and individuals in a range of securities, corporate governance and antitrust litigation.

In May 2008, Mr. Lawrence was recognized as one of the “Top 100 Lawyers in Philadelphia” in a survey of over 38,000 lawyers and judges conducted and published by Philadelphia Magazine and Law & Politics magazine.  In addition, he has been recognized as a “Pennsylvania Super Lawyer” every year since 2005.  In September 2006, Mr. Lawrence was selected by American Lawyer Media, The Pennsylvania Lawyer, and The Legal Intelligencer as one of 45 Lawyers on the Fast Track.

His recent successes include:

  • Representing statewide classes of workers in parallel actions prosecuted in the federal courts in Pennsylvania and New York with claims that Best Buy Co., Inc. and certain of its affiliates violated state labor laws by not paying its employees for all of the time they worked, achieved settlements of $902,410.00 and $907,566.00 (respectively) plus the costs of administration to resolve class members’ claims. Turner v. Best Buy Co. Inc., Case No. 08-cv-1024 (E.D.N.Y) (U.S. District Judge Sandra L. Townes), and Hall, Keck and Eisenhower v. Best Buy Co., Inc., BBC Investment Co., BBC Property Co., and Best Buy Stores, L.P., Case No. 07-cv-4724 (E.D.Pa.) (U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe).

  • Representing a group of health benefits plan providers (“TPPs”) starting with pre-litigation conception of a lawsuit in 2005, worked with class counsel on a lawsuit alleging that the prescription drug wholesaler, McKesson, and the prescription drug pricing information publisher, First DataBank, illegally conspired to increase the reported average wholesale prices of approximately 800 prescription drugs, resulting in increased prescription drug costs for consumers and third party payer health benefit plan providers. The firm then represented these TPP health plans in settlement negotiations with McKesson that resulted in a $350 million settlement and subsequent allocation mediation with counsel representing consumer class members, resulting in allocation of $285,000,000 of the settlement award to TPPs. New England Carpenters Health Benefit Fund, et al. v. First DataBank, Inc. and McKesson Corp., No. 05-cv- 11148 (D. Ma.) (United Stated District Judge Patti B. Saris).

  • Representing more than 40 of the largest health benefit plan providers in the U.S. (“TPPs”) which brought civil actions in New Jersey state court against Merck, seeking recovery of amounts they paid for Vioxx prescribed to their insureds. Vioxx was pulled off the market in September 2004 by Merck due to its side-effect risks of heart attack and strokes. On August 4, 2009, Merck agreed to pay a $65 million to settle these claims and similar claims by other TPPs. Our clients filed multiple actions, the first of which was Medical Mutual of Ohio v. Merck & Co., Inc., N.J. Superior Ct. Atlantic County, Docket No. ATL-L-07319-06-MT, Case No. 619 (Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee).

  • Representing a group of the nation’s largest health benefit plan providers, filed an injunctive action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Lowey Dannenberg prosecuted our clients’ lien claims through the District Court and Court of Appeals for more than one year, leading to a settlement in 2009 establishing a new model private lien resolution program unlike any ever utilized before in a mass tort settlement. This settlement program was heralded by the District Court as a novel approach to the seemingly intractable, yet recurring, problem of how to deal with the interplay of ERISA reimbursement rights with patients’ privacy rights. The lien resolution program is expected to result in the payment to our clients of tens of millions of dollars in 2010 in satisfaction of reimbursement liens. Avmed v. BrownGreer PLC, Case No. 08-30802 (E.D. La.) (United States District Judge Eldon Fallon).

  • Representing Aetna, Inc., accessory designer and marketer Coach, Inc., and healthcare subrogation servicer Rawlings & Co. in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York won judgment dismissing a class action lawsuit on behalf of plaintiffs involved in motor vehicle accidents in New York State, which charged that defendants’ efforts to enforce reimbursement rights provided in health benefit plan contracts with the plaintiffs violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). Kesselman v. The Rawlings Co., et al., Case No. 08-cv-4717 (S.D.N.Y) (U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones).

  • Representing a shareholder class which sued to enjoin consummation of a proposal by Aramark’s majority stockholder and CEO, to take the company private at an unfair and inadequate price, where he negotiated an increase in per share price and changes in the way votes were counted to ensure fairness at the shareholder meeting to approve the merger. United Food and Commercial Workers Union and Participating Food Industry Employers Tri-State Pension Fund v. Joseph Neubauer and Aramark Corp., Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, May Term, 2006, No. 2940.

  • Representing approximately 50 insurers which opted out of a class action settlement, filed an independent action, and negotiated a substantially richer settlement of claims against a brand manufacturer that delayed generic competition for its product.  Humana, Inc., et al. vs. GlaxoSmithKline, et al., Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, December Term 2004, No. 3140.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Lawrence directed plaintiff’s recovery work and commercial litigation efforts at Aetna, Inc., one of the nation's leading providers of health, pharmacy, and other benefits, where he supervised recovery of tens of millions of dollars for the company and its self-funded customers in various actions relating to prescription drugs, medical devices and medical provider fraud.  He shifted Aetna's recovery efforts from more traditional and passive methods to an aggressive contingent fee based program of both class based and private actions.  His efforts in developing and advancing this niche litigation at Aetna caused U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds to recognize Mr. Lawrence as "a highly sophisticated representative" of the insurance industry. In re Cardizem CD Antitrust Litigation, 218 F.R.D. 508, 525, 535 (E.D. Mich. 2003).

In addition to his recovery work at Aetna, Mr. Lawrence managed many substantial litigation matters including the successful defense and trial of a commercial dispute with a customer seeking more than $1.2 billion in damages; defense of a series of 17 related employment termination based cases in a variety of state and federal courts featuring unfair trade practices claims under California law; recovery of $5.4 million from a bankrupt medical provider in a shifted risk arrangement; dismissal of an $18.7 million co-ordination of benefits dispute; successful resolution of an $8.9 million software licensing dispute; defense and recovery of legal fees from a medical provider suing for dismissal from Aetna's network; and defense of numerous cases relating to self-funded plan audits.  Mr. Lawrence led Aetna's efforts to enforce non-compete, non-solicitation and other restrictive covenants.

Mr. Lawrence has directed the favorable defense of numerous class action cases, including cases involving whether ERISA imposes a duty on a health plan to disclose physician compensation arrangements, failure to pass along provider discounts, failure to provide infertility benefits, and failure to cover prescription drugs.  Additionally, Mr. Lawrence managed responses to several major governmental inquiries including by the Federal Trade Commission, the Office of the Inspector General, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the NYS Attorney General. Mr. Lawrence has participated in the trial of over forty cases.

In April 2011, by Order of the Supreme Court, Mr. Lawrence was re-appointed to the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for a three year term.  The Disciplinary Board is comprised of 11 attorneys and 2 non-lawyers from across the state of Pennsylvania, with a purpose to assist the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in performing its constitutional duty to regulate attorney conduct.  The Board meets regularly to decide board administrative matters, cases and policies.

Mr. Lawrence is active with the Pennsylvania Bar Association where he serves on the Judicial Campaign Advertising Board, which monitors and reviews complaints to promote accurate, fair and dignified judicial campaign advertising among candidates seeking election to the Commonwealth's appellate courts, and on the Judicial Administration Committee which reviews and makes recommendations regarding the operation and procedures of the state and federal court systems.  He was one of ten attorneys appointed by the president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association to develop Judicial Campaign Advertising Guidelines.  Mr. Lawrence also served as Vice-Chairman of the Business Torts Committee of the American Bar Association.

He is an appointed Member of the Pennsylvania Securities Commission's Attorney Advisory Committee.  A Radnor, Pennsylvania resident, Mr. Lawrence has a history of political and community involvement.  He serves as Commissioner of Voter Registration of Delaware County, Pennsylvania.  He is the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee Southeast Caucus, and has served in a variety of local and county party posts.  Over the years, he has chaired, managed and worked in many political campaigns.  Mr. Lawrence served as a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2008 and as an Alternate Delegate in 2000.

Mr. Lawrence serves as President of the James A. Finnegan Fellowship Foundation, which provides scholarships, stipends and internships to Pennsylvania students who express an interest in state government.  In addition, he serves as an Alumni Interviewer for Georgetown University. 

Mr. Lawrence was given an AV rating by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest rating a lawyer can obtain, indicating a very high to preeminent legal ability and exceptional ethical standards as established by confidential opinions from members of the Bar.  Mr. Lawrence is a graduate of Georgetown University (B.S.B.A. 1990) and the Villanova University School of Law (J.D. 1993).  He is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and New York; and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit and the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the Southern District of New York.