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Tim is an experienced and accomplished advocate, representing public and private companies, private equity sponsors, and large not-for-profit institutions in complex litigation and arbitration matters from pre-suit strategy through trial and appeal. Tim’s experience spans a broad array of high-stakes commercial matters, including disputes involving complex transactions and business relationships, as well as corporate governance, securities, and qui tam claims. Drawing on his extensive litigation experience, Tim also counsels institutional clients on litigation, regulatory, and related risks and considerations weighing on important business decisions and transactions.
Committed to Ropes & Gray’s mission to “Practice with Purpose,” Tim’s active pro bono practice includes his recent role serving as trial counsel for a class of juveniles subjected to unconstitutional mechanical restraints and solitary confinement at the Iowa Boys State Training School and winning precedent-setting relief for the class after a two week trial in Iowa federal court. Tim has also served as first chair trial counsel winning asylum in two separate cases for individuals persecuted in their native Somalia and Angola.
Before law school, Tim worked as a classically trained singer, performing in opera houses and concert halls in New York City and around the country.
Experience
Complex Commercial Litigation
- Regularly represents leading private equity sponsors in pre- and post- closing disputes involving representations and warranties, earn-outs, fraud, insurance coverage, executive compensation, and other deal-related issues.
- Toast, Inc. Secured dismissal of claims against recently-acquired subsidiary of leading hospitality software firm brought by the subsidiary’s former equity holder in Cook County’s Chancery Division.
- Duff & Phelps. Representing global financial advisory firm in Sears Holdings Corp., et al. v. Lampert, et al. (S.D.N.Y.), Sears Holdings Corporation’s post-bankruptcy adversary proceeding brought by Sears’ unsecured creditors.
- Represented founder and CEO of specialty lending business in arbitration against major private bank involving the sale of the business, prevailing on the merits and also winning a multi-million dollar attorneys’ fee award. The award was recently confirmed in the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York.
- Leading Medical Device Company. Obtained complete dismissal with prejudice of putative nationwide consumer fraud class action brought against a leading medical device company in the Central District of California.
- Bain Capital. Part of Ropes & Gray’s cross-practice-group team representing Bain Capital in its $18 billion acquisition of Toshiba Memory Corporation from Toshiba Corporation, then the largest leveraged buyout and private equity deal ever in Asia.
- TravelCenters of America. Secured decisive trial victory in the Delaware Court of Chancery for the Fortune 500 company in a business-critical contract dispute that proceeded from pleading to trial on an expedited five-month timetable.
- Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Represented the largest pediatric hospital in the United States in a complex contract dispute brought in Chicago federal court; obtained dismissal of all claims brought against the hospital seeking royalties for certain inventions licensed by the client to a third party on initial motion to dismiss and, after plaintiff filed amended complaint, obtained dismissal with prejudice of plaintiff’s primary claim, leading to a favorable resolution of the case.
- East v. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, et al. (M.D. La.). Defeated Louisiana’s major health insurers’ attempt to refuse federal Ryan White premium assistance for low-income Louisianans living with HIV, after prosecuting the first reported case under the Affordable Care Act’s anti-discrimination provisions.
- Prominent hospital system. Obtained dismissal of a consumer class action related to major hospital system’s billing and collection practices.
Corporate Governance & Securities Litigation
- In re Tesaro Therapeutics. Argued and won dismissal with prejudice before the Delaware Court of Chancery with respect to all claims brought against the directors and officers of Tesaro Therapeutics in connection with its $5 billion sale to GlaxoSmithKline.
- BioMimetic Therapeutics, Inc. Secured dismissal with prejudice of a federal securities fraud class action on behalf of a biotechnology company related to alleged misstatements regarding its pivotal developmental product and FDA approval. Secured affirmance of that dismissal from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. (The rulings have broad industry implications concerning the responsibilities of a biotechnology company with respect to the dissemination of non-public FDA communications.)
- Prominent private equity sponsor. Obtained complete dismissal with prejudice of complex “short swing” insider trading action under Section 16(b) of the Securities Exchange Act in the Southern District of New York on behalf of private equity sponsor.
- Prominent private equity sponsor. Defended private equity sponsor in a combination class action / derivative suit in the Delaware Court of Chancery challenging a complex business merger and recapitalization transaction post-closing.
- Prominent hospitality group. Represented directors in defeating activist investor’s attempt to force an interim board of directors election based on alleged violations of federal proxy solicitation laws.
- Represented several corporate clients and their boards of directors in resolving merger & acquisition related litigation, achieving shareholder approval, closing on schedule, and obtaining dismissal of claims.
- Represented numerous issuers and their principals facing “short-swing” insider trading allegations under Section 16(b) of the Securities Exchange Act.
Government Enforcement & Qui Tam Litigation
- Vertical Pharmaceuticals. Won dismissal of False Claims Act qui tam action pending in the Northern District of Illinois against prenatal vitamin manufacturer.
- The American Kidney Fund. Represented the prominent charity nationwide in various matters related to insurers’ attacks on charitable health care assistance and allegations of improper “steering” of Medicare-eligible dialysis patients onto private plans, including civil litigations and interactions with CMS and state insurance regulators.
- Global pharmaceutical companies. Represented leading global pharmaceutical companies in connection with various state public records requests implicating trade secrets.
- Major health care system. Conducted expedited internal investigation into accounting issues in connection with debt securities issuance.
Other Pro Bono
- Appointed by Northern District of Illinois to represent incarcerated civil rights plaintiff.
- Part of the trial team that represented a class of adolescents suffering from mental illness, who were confined at the Iowa Boys State Training School and were subjected to excessive and punitive use of solitary confinement and mechanical restraints. Ropes & Gray along with co-counsel, Children’s Rights and Disability Rights Iowa, litigated the case in a two week trial in the Southern District of Iowa.
- Partnered with GLAD to obtain an important ruling in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court securing full parental rights for children of unmarried LGBT parents.
- Secured favorable plea agreement and probationary sentence for individual facing federal felony charges.
- Prosecuted consumer fraud claims and secured a favorable settlement for defrauded small business owner.
- Secured early termination of federal supervised release for indigent clients.