Our people

Currently based in Reed Smith's Pittsburgh office, Tom served as Senior U.S. Partner in the London office during 2001, and again from 2004 until August 2007.  He also served as Senior U.S. Partner in the Hong Kong office for 15 months from September 2007.

Tom's practice is devoted to corporate finance with special emphasis on acquisitions and dispositions, and transactional activity.  Tom has advised clients in the acquisition or disposition of publicly and privately owned businesses engaged in commercial banking, equipment leasing, financial asset servicing, fund administration, food products, health care, human resources consulting and outsourcing, insurance, investment advisory, investment banking, mortgage banking, mutual fund management, natural gas generation and distribution, solid waste disposal, and a variety of manufacturing activities.  In the past few years, many of these transactions have had significant cross-border aspects. 

In these and other activities, Tom frequently advises Boards of Directors on a variety of subjects, including their fiduciary duties under state and federal law, and their obligations and those of the companies they serve under Sarbanes-Oxley and related matters. 

In the corporate finance area, Tom acted as special counsel to U.S., Canadian and British bank holding companies in the structuring, negotiation, documentation and closing of the off-shore securitization of highly leveraged loans (HLTs) sold by the banks to a special-purpose Netherlands corporation.  Previously, he led a team of Reed Smith lawyers in providing legal assistance to a large bank holding company in all aspects of the planning and implementation of a unique and widely applauded recapitalization and asset disposition plan, including the transfer to a liquidating national bank of a substantial portion of the bank holding company’s domestic troubled loan portfolio.  He has also advised clients in a wide variety of project financing, acquisition financing, structured financing and leasing transactions.

Representative Matters

• Represented The Bank of New York Mellon in its $2.31 billion acquisition of PNC's Global Investment Services business.

• Represented Mellon Financial Corporation in its merger with The Bank of New York Company

• Assisted a major bank holding company in all aspects of its successful defense of an unsolicited acquisition proposal

• Represented a bank holding company in a groundbreaking acquisition of one of the largest mutual fund companies in the United States

• Represented a financial services client in all aspects of the disposition of its retail banking and lower middle-market lending and cash management businesses, the largest transaction of its type ever accomplished

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Speeches / Presentations

• Tom has lectured frequently on various corporate finance matters, including participation as a lecturer on aspects of the acquisition and disposition of financial institutions. He has served as a panelist on various corporate and public finance subjects as well.

Experience

Legal Education

Undergraduate Education

Professional Admissions / Qualifications

• Pennsylvania

Professional Affiliations

• American Bar Association
• Allegheny County Bar Association
• Gateway Rehabilitation Center – Life Director and former Chairman
• Littleford Group, Inc. – Director
• Pittsburgh Symphony, Inc. – Life Director and Executive Committee Member, past President and CEO

Interests

Tom and his wife, Jamee Wadsworth Todd, have two adult children. He enjoys reading, jazz and classical music, and a variety of sports activities. He is involved in numerous civic and charitable associations.

Awards, Honors and Recognitions

For more than 10 years, Tom has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America in the area of Banking Law.