Robert E. Gerber is a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York. At the time of his appointment in 2000, he was a partner in the New York City law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, where he specialized in securities and commercial litigation and, thereafter, bankruptcy litigation and counseling.

Judge Gerber earned a B.S. degree from Rutgers University, from which he graduated, with high honors, in 1967, and a J.D. degree from Columbia University, from which he graduated, magna cum laude, in 1970, and where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone and James Kent Scholar.

Upon graduation from law school, Judge Gerber joined the Fried Frank firm, and with a brief interruption in 1971 and 1972, during which he served in the United States Air Force, Judge Gerber was with Fried Frank for 30 years, 22 of them as a partner. From 1970 to 1989, he litigated securities and commercial cases, along with bankruptcy matters, and also kept up a meaningful pro bono caseload -- including the ultimately successful representation, over 10 years in post-conviction proceedings, of a Florida inmate who had been sentenced to death. He practiced very nearly entirely in the bankruptcy area over his last 11 years of private practice, representing debtors and creditors in about equal numbers, principally in large chapter 11 cases.