Bert Gall serves as a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice. He litigates economic liberty, school choice, free speech and property rights cases nationwide in both federal and state courts.
Bert directs IJ’s National Street Vending Initiative, a nationwide effort to vindicate the right of street vendors to earn an honest living by fighting unconstitutional vending restrictions in courts of law and the court of public opinion. He served as co-counsel in IJ’s successful challenge to El Paso’s protectionist restrictions on mobile vendors, which resulted in El Paso repealing those restrictions. He also led IJ’s recent successful effort in 2013 to defeat proposed food-truck regulations that would have (by their anti-competitive design) crippled D.C.’s food-truck industry. In addition, Bert has co-authored three reports about street-vending laws and food trucks: Streets of Dreams: How Cities Can Create Economic Opportunity by Knocking Down Protectionist Barriers to Street Vending; Food Truck Freedom: How to Build Better Food-Truck Laws in Your City; and Seven Myths and Realities About Food Trucks: Why the Facts Support Food-Truck Freedom.
In school choice, Bert was IJ’s lead counsel in its successful legal defense of school choice programs in both Indiana and Alabama. The former victory, which preserved what has the potential to become the largest publicly funded scholarship program in the country, was capped off by a unanimous decision from the Indiana Supreme Court. In 2015, the legal team Bert led secured an 8-1 decision from the Alabama Supreme Court, which preserved that state’s first two school choice programs.
In his First Amendment practice, Bert served as co-counsel in SpeechNow.org v. FEC, in which IJ successfully challenged federal campaign finance laws’ restrictions on free speech and the right of association. He was lead counsel in the Institute’s successful challenge to Florida’s “electioneering communications” law, which required groups and individuals to register with the state and comply with onerous regulations if they merely wanted to mention candidates or ballot issues in their publications. Bert also successfully defended a group of home and business owners in Clarksville, Tenn., who were sued by two developers (one a local politician) for criticizing the developers and their local government for abusing the power of eminent domain for private development.
In the area of property rights, Bert served as co-counsel for home and business owners in Norwood v. Horney, the first eminent domain abuse case to be argued and decided by a state supreme court in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Kelo decision. In ruling for the property owners, the Court unanimously held that taking private property for private economic development violates the Ohio Constitution.
Bert received his law degree from Duke University in 1999, where he served as an articles editor on the staff of Law and Contemporary Problems. He received his undergraduate degree from Rice University in 1996 where he majored in history and political science. Before coming to the Institute, he spent two years in private practice at a Helms Mulliss & Wicker in Charlotte, where he worked on a wide variety of commercial litigation cases. After law school, he clerked for Judge Karen Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
In 2009, Bert was recognized by The National Law Journal as one of its “Rising Stars: Washington’s 40 under 40,” which honored the top 40 lawyers under the age of 40 in the Washington, D.C. area.
Bert's Cases

Educational Choice | Publicly Funded Scholarships
North Carolina Parents Join Legal Battle To Defend School Choice Program
Through the Opportunity Scholarship Program, North Carolina is giving low-income families the same educational choices that wealthier families already enjoy.

Educational Choice | Tax Credit Scholarships
Alabama Parents Join Legal Battle To Protect School Choice
Alabama has created a unique, refundable tax credit program that offers a lifeline to families to help them escape failing public schools if they lack the financial resources to do so.

Economic Liberty | Vending
Vindicating the Right to Earn an Honest Living Under the Florida Constitution: IJ Files Suit on Behalf of Vendors in Hialeah, Fla.
Street vendors are a core part of the American Dream. But Hialeah, Fla., needlessly makes it difficult for street vendors to earn an honest living.

Economic Liberty | Vending
Atlanta Strikes: Out Challenging Atlanta, Georgia’s Unconstitutional Vending Monopoly

Educational Choice | Publicly Funded Scholarships
IJ Successfully Defended Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program

Economic Liberty | Vending
El Paso Mobile Food Vendors Challenge City’s Effort to Run Them Out of Town

First Amendment | Political Speech
Protecting Citizen Speech: Lawsuit Challenging Constitutionality Of Florida Campaign Finance Regulations Kicks Off Nationwide Campaign

Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech | Tour Guides
License to Describe: Challenging Washington D.C.’s Tour-Guide Licensing Scheme
The First Amendment protects everyone who talks for a living, whether they’re journalists, professors or tour guides.



First Amendment | Political Speech
SpeechNow.org v. FEC Protecting Americans’ Rights To Organize and Speak About Politics



Eminent Domain | Private Property
Norwood, Ohio Homeowners & Small Businesses Battle City & Private Developer Over Eminent Domain Abuse

Eminent Domain | Private Property
Ohio’s “City of Homes” Faces Wrecking Ball of Eminent Domain Abuse: Homeowners Challenge Bogus “Blight” Designation
Bert's Research & Reports

Economic Liberty | Vending
Seven Myths and Realities about Food Trucks
Using facts and real-world examples, IJ shows that there is no basis for the argument that restaurants need government intervention to “protect” them from food trucks.

Economic Liberty | Vending
Food-Truck Freedom
In order to foster the conditions that will let food trucks thrive, this report offers recommendations based on the legislative best practices of Los Angeles and other cities.

Economic Liberty | Food Freedom | Vending
Streets of Dreams
Street vending is, and always has been, a part of the American economy and a fixture of urban life. Thanks to low start-up costs, the trade has offered countless entrepreneurs—particularly immigrants and others with little…
Bert's News, Articles & Publications
Press Release
Victory for San Antonio Food Trucks
Press Release
Victory for School Choice in Alabama
Liberty & Law Article