Tom is counsel in Reed Smith’s Corporate & Securities Group, resident in the New York office.
He has more than 35 years of experience in the practice of corporate law, with principal emphasis on strategic planning, corporate governance, and corporate finance and securities (public offerings, private placements, bank facilities and leveraged leasing), including broad experience in federal securities regulation. In this context, he has extensive industry knowledge in conjunction with his longtime representation and counseling of electric and gas utility companies and their affiliated entities. He also has been selected for inclusion on the New York Super Lawyers list for 2012.
Tom served for 11 years (1994-2005) as Vice Chair and then Chair of Thelen, and as Chair of Reid & Priest (one of Thelen's predecessor firms). He led the firm's practice team in corporate governance, including advising and counseling public company and privately held clients on evolving federal securities laws and regulations, stock exchange corporate governance listing standards, FASB and PCAOB accounting reforms, SEC registration and reporting requirements, disclosure controls and procedures, and internal financial controls. Tom also counseled boards of directors, board committees, general counsels and senior management on director and officer liability issues and fiduciary duties, including Sarbanes-Oxley Act regulatory requirements, and evolving SEC enforcement policies and activities.
For a decade, Tom was the client manager for an S&P MidCap 400 multi-dimensional natural resources company engaged in providing value-added products and services to our country's energy, transportation and communications infrastructure. This NYSE company grew significantly during this time, largely through a series of cash and stock mergers and acquisitions. These acquisitions included companies engaged in the utility and energy and related businesses, domestic and international independent power production, oil and natural gas exploration and production, pipeline and energy services, utility services and construction materials and mining operations.
Tom also served for many years as a principal corporate, securities and federal regulatory counsel for one of our country's largest public utility holding company systems. In this role, he led a multi-disciplinary team in representing the corporation in its acquisition of another multi-jurisdictional public utility, an NYSE public company, advising the board of directors on its fiduciary duties and obtaining SEC regulatory approval of the merger and related transactions. He has also represented this client group, and a number of other large public utility company clients, as issuer's counsel for a variety of substantial debt and equity securities offerings and bank financings.