Walter D. Bay

Walter D. Bay serves as the General Counsel and Secretary for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., a global insurance brokerage and risk management firm, a role he has held since 2007. In this in-house capacity, he oversees a global legal team and advises senior management and the company's Board of Directors on a broad spectrum of legal issues, including corporate governance, regulatory compliance, securities law, mergers and acquisitions, and litigation, which encompasses patent disputes. His practice thus focuses on managing and defending corporate interests across diverse legal areas.

In his patent litigation experience, Mr. Bay primarily represents the defendant side, consistent with his role as in-house General Counsel for an operating company. The sole tracked case, Midwest Energy Emissions Corp. v. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., involved allegations of patent infringement related to technology for capturing mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. A jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware assessed liability against a group of coal industry companies, including Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., resulting in a $57 million verdict in March 2024. Post-trial motions, including for judgment as a matter of law and a new trial, were subsequently denied as of late 2025.

Mr. Bay's professional background includes over 35 years of legal and business experience. Before joining Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., he was a partner in the corporate department at Harter, Secrest & Emery LLP and held several roles at GE Capital Services, including mergers and acquisitions counsel and General Counsel for GE Commercial Distribution Finance. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the College of Wooster and a Juris Doctorate, with honors, from the George Washington University National Law Center in 1991. No specific public record of his involvement in PTAB or IPR proceedings was identified.