Clifford Gibbons
President & Managing Director
Clifford Gibbons has over forty years experience representing clients before the U.S. Congress, the White House, Federal departments, regulatory agencies, and foreign governments. His areas of expertise include taxation, appropriations, international trade, health care, major funding for new personalized genomic based cancer therapeutics, higher education, insurance, financial services, environmental policy, and food and product safety. He advises clients at the intersection of business and government and crafts public policy and commercial strategies to enhance competitive market advantages.
Mr. Gibbons received his law degree from Florida State University and his undergraduate degree from the University of South Florida. His professional career began in 1976 as a trial attorney prosecuting criminal cases for the State Attorney's office in Tampa, Florida. In 1979, he served in the Office of the Vice President of the United States and was later appointed Special Assistant to the President in the White House Office of the United States Trade Representative. While serving in that position, Mr. Gibbons authored A Preface to Trade.
After leaving the White House, Mr. Gibbons served as counsel to the Grocery Manufacturers of America, Inc. and later leading the government relations practice with the prestigious Washington based global law firm of Hogan | Lovells. In 1990, Mr. Gibbons founded the firm of Gibbons & Company — Washington, D.C., where he serves as president.
Cody Gibbons
Vice President & Managing Director
Cody Gibbons is Vice President of Gibbons & Company. Washington D.C. born and raised, Cody has spent most of his life in and around Congress and has deep connections and well-honed experience working with policymakers. Cody's primary focus is developing win-win international trade strategies, solutions, and corporate advocacy to shape legislation, public policy, and government decisions to achieve your business objectives.
Before joining Gibbons & Company, Cody served in the Irish Department of Finance during the Irish Presidency of the European Council. As a member of the EU Presidency Team for Financial and Banking Regulations, Cody worked in the EU Council in Brussels on the adoption of critical new financial and banking laws and regulations. The Irish Presidency of the European Council is noted as the most successful Presidency ever to preside over the European Council based on the successful passage of legislation. Cody also served as an advisory member of the Republic of Ireland's Department of Finance in coordination with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Union, and leading global financial companies.
Cody is a native of the nation's capital and received a degree in International Relations from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He continued his postgraduate studies at MIT, including the global Chief Operating Officer (COO) Program. Cody is an accomplished Eagle Scout who rigorously applies his leadership skills to the firm's work, ensuring the best results for clients.
Justin Gibbons
Managing Director & Head of International Affairs
Justin Gibbons is Managing Director at Gibbons & Company, where he leads the firm's international affairs practice and directs business development across priority sectors including healthcare, infrastructure, and emerging markets. Justin brings a cross-sector perspective to government relations, integrating strategic communications, policy intelligence, and international outreach to advance client objectives in Washington and abroad.
Justin brings particular depth in artificial intelligence and emerging technology policy, advising clients on the regulatory and legislative landscape surrounding AI governance, algorithmic accountability, and technology-driven market disruption. He has worked at the intersection of AI and institutional capital markets through his work at CanceRx, where machine learning and quantitative modeling inform portfolio construction across oncology clinical pipelines. Like mutual insurance companies, CanceRx raises long-term capital through a debt-based structure — aligning investor returns with long-term program performance rather than short-term profit extraction.
Justin's international work has encompassed engagement with governmental and multilateral institutions across the Middle East, Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa. He has played a central role in the firm's infrastructure and healthcare initiatives, including its work on modular hospital export and humanitarian health access in the MENA region, coordinating strategy across congressional offices, federal agencies, and international development partners.
In addition to his work at Gibbons & Company, Justin serves as Head of Business Development and Marketing at CanceRx, a cancer research financing company working to bridge the funding gap between basic oncology research and FDA approval through innovative long-term capital structures. In this capacity, he leads institutional investor relations, pipeline intelligence, and all marketing and content operations.
Justin holds a Master's degree in International Business from the University of Manchester and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of Michigan.
The Honorable Sam M. Gibbons
Chairman Emeritus 1920 – 2012
Sam Gibbons, Chairman Emeritus of Gibbons & Company, was instrumental in providing strategic counsel and advocacy on a broad range of public policy and international trade law matters to global businesses and governmental entities.
Mr. Gibbons served in the United States Congress as a Member of the House of Representatives for 34 years (1962–1997). He was Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and its Subcommittee on Trade, Vice-Chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation, and U.S. Advisor to the World Trade Organization (WTO). He had extensive expertise in international trade, taxation, health care, public and private pensions, appropriations, and education. During his service in Congress, Mr. Gibbons worked on a bipartisan basis with eight U.S. Presidents on major domestic and international policy initiatives. For his distinguished service in Congress, he was honored by his former colleagues in 2004 and received the Congressional Statesman Award.
As a leading architect of American trade policy for more than 25 years, Mr. Gibbons is recognized as one of the foremost proponents of open markets and free trade. As Chairman of the Trade Subcommittee in Congress, he drafted and sponsored every major trade law enacted from 1975–1997, including The Trade Acts of 1979, 1984 and 1988, legislation implementing the Tokyo and the Uruguay Rounds of the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade, U.S. admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Caribbean Basin Initiative, the U.S./Israel Free Trade Agreement, the U.S./Canada Free Trade Agreement, the Andean Trade Preference Act, expanded trade dialog with China and Vietnam, and the North American Free Trade Agreement.
While Chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, Mr. Gibbons led trade and interparliamentary delegations throughout Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. He regularly conferred with heads of government, their trade and economic officials, and business leaders in the United States and abroad. Mr. Gibbons served as Chairman of the Trade and Economic Committees of the U.S./Canada and U.S./Mexico Interparliamentary Groups, and as Co-Chairman of the U.S./European Union Interparliamentary Group. For his relentless leadership in promoting more open and free trade policies in the Western Hemisphere, he was unanimously selected by the presidents of Latin American and Caribbean countries to receive the distinguished Eagle of the Americas Award.
During his 28 years on the House Committee on Ways and Means, Mr. Gibbons advocated reform of the Federal income and payroll tax systems and was also involved in developing every Federal healthcare financing law since the inception of Medicare in 1966. A strong proponent of pension protections and portability, he drafted and sponsored legislation creating the Individual Retirement Account (IRA) — including amendments to exclude taxation on the inside investment build up on IRAs.
Before his election to the United States Congress, Mr. Gibbons served for 10 years in the Florida Legislature, where he is widely recognized as the Founder of the University of South Florida and later the USF Medical School — currently the 8th-largest university in the United States. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Florida and was admitted to practice law in Washington, D.C., Florida, and before the United States Supreme Court.
During World War II, Mr. Gibbons served as a senior officer with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. He led parachute infantry forces in major combat actions, including the pre-dawn D-Day invasion of Normandy, the invasion of Holland, the Battle of Bastogne, the capture of Berchtesgaden, and further operations in central Europe and Austria. He was awarded the Bronze Star for valor. French President Chirac presented Mr. Gibbons with France's most prestigious award, the Légion d'Honneur, in 2004.
Mr. Gibbons is the primary subject of Tom Brokaw's best-selling book The Greatest Generation.