Soren E. Gisleson

Soren E. Gisleson is a partner of Herman, Herman & Katz, L.L.C. He began working at the firm in the Fall of 2000 as an associate where he handled a variety of personal injury cases and criminal pro bono cases. In 2005, he helped lead efforts in first party insurance cases on behalf of homeowners and businesses that were affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He received a special appointment by the State of Louisiana to prosecute an antitrust case against the insurance industry for their claims handling practices after these hurricanes.  He served as the Insurance Section Chair for the Louisiana Association of Justice for two years following these hurricanes.  He tried the first flood insurance case and the second homeowner’s insurance case after these historic hurricanes.  He litigated and argued cases in the Louisiana Supreme Court and United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal that bolstered bad faith damages for homeowners to secure against insurance companies.  He continues to litigate first party insurance cases to this day.    

From 2010 to the present, Mr. Gisleson assisted Stephen Herman, co-lead counsel in the BP-OIL MDL Litigation, as second chair where he prepared pleadings and appeals, worked with experts, took depositions, and furthered settlement efforts.  The litigation became one of the largest, most complex cases in the history of American jurisprudence, including two trials, more than 72 million documents exchanged, hundreds of depositions, hundreds of motions, dozens of experts, dozens of appeals, and more than 26,000 court filings.  Ultimately, BP was forced to pay more than $20 billion in civil settlements and billions more for criminal violations.  Mr. Gisleson also represented HHK’s hundreds of clients in the settlement who filed thousands of claims and collectively received hundreds of millions.  Mr. Gisleson continues to represent those who were injured during the clean-up operations.    

Mr. Gisleson has been recognized by the Best Lawyers in America since 2016 for his work in Personal Injury Litigation (Plaintiffs) and Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions (Plaintiffs). He has been named in Louisiana Super Lawyers from 2017 to 2020 as a Top-Rated Personal Injury Plaintiff attorney. He is currently fighting for survivors of sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy members, as well as those with civil rights claims against various criminal justice institutions like the police, prisons, and cities.   He has always represented those who have been catastrophically injured or died due to the negligence of others. 

Mr. Gisleson attended the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy in 1993.  He received his Juris Doctorate in May of 1999 from Loyola University School of Law. While at Loyola Law School, Mr. Gisleson became a member of Law Review in 1998 and published his casenote, Graham v. Willis-Knighton Medical Center: The Dissipation of Statutorily Admitted Liability in Medical Malpractice, 44 LOY. L. REV. 315 (1999). Mr. Gisleson served as the articles editor of the Law Review from 1998-99, soliciting and editing legal writings on subjects such as death penalty litigation, environmental regulation, constitutional law and admiralty. In 1999, Mr. Gisleson was also named to the National Law School Dean’s List. Immediately upon graduation, from 1999-2000, Mr. Gisleson clerked for the Honorable Carl J. Barbier, District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.