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For over thirty years, Tom Kimer has concentrated on business and commercial litigation. This practice has included securities and fraud class actions, financial institution litigation, MDL proceedings, litigation involving securitization of assets, and a broad variety of contract disputes ranging from software to sales and distribution issues. This practice includes jury and court trials, appeals, pre-judgment injunctions and other remedies, arbitrations, and pre-trial resolutions of disputes.
Recent jury cases tried to verdict involved a trade secrets case in the context of an acquisition and a dealership termination case.
Much of Tom's activities have included hearings, trials, appeals relating to lender liability claims. Lender liability claims take many forms but have common themes of breach of express and implied contract, actual and constructive fraud, promissory estoppel, interference with contract, breach of fiduciary duty, violation of state or federal securities laws, or liability pursuant to RICO. The most recent reported decision is Norwest Bank Minnesota, N.A. vs. Sween Corporation, 118 F.3d 1255 (8th Cir. 1997).
Recent experience includes the dismissal of derivative litigation challenging the compensation of the "highest paid CEO in America" (also the most successful CEO); and the successful defense of a publicly traded company and its officers in a purported class action lawsuit challenging the completeness of public disclosures by the company in the face of a significant decline in the price of its shares. Another typical matter is the representation of the officers and directors of a closely held corporation involved in a dispute with a former minority shareholder who is alleges breaches of fiduciary duty and other improper activities in connection with the redemption of his stock in the company.
For many years, Tom has represented institutional trustees and indenture trustees in various litigations challenging the trustees' conduct or performance. Most recently this litigation has involved the representation of the trustees and master-servicer in securitization transactions.
Tom recently represented an indenture trustee in a securities case involving taxable municipal bonds which had been consolidated by the Panel for Multi-District Litigation in United States District Court in New Orleans in which consolidated claims exceeded $1 billion. (In Re Taxable Municipal Bonds Securities Litigation, MDL 863). This matter also involved the representation of the trustee in the California conservatorship proceedings of Executive Life Insurance Company where the trustees have won the determination that guaranteed investment contracts are policies of insurance salvaging, collectively, over $1 billion of recoveries for the bondholders.
Tom's further experience includes representing defendants in complex multi-party litigation and class actions. An example is a RICO conspiracy claim brought by an association of over 4,000 former depositors of a failed savings bank in Nebraska, which case has been the subject of two opinions of both the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Nebraska Supreme Court, and a writ to the United States Supreme Court. Another example is the representation of a consortium of banks in a $5 million dispute with the RTC as Receiver for Centrust Savings Bank which is seeking to avoid liability on a lease of computer equipment.
In addition to the formal litigation process, Tom has successful experience in resolving business disputes by negotiation and informal dispute resolution strategies. He serves as General Counsel to the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, a contract market regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. | 