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Thomas F. Koegel

Partner

Overview

Tom Koegel is a partner in Crowell & Moring's San Francisco office and a member of the firm's Litigation Group. His practice encompasses complex litigation and trials in the areas of bankruptcy and commercial litigation, healthcare, intellectual property, and the environment. His clients have included Fortune 500 technology, transportation, and services firms, as well as commercial creditors and bankruptcy trustees with complex litigation claims.

Tom's experience in a broad array of federal litigation is reflected in his service to the federal courts in the Northern District of California. In 2012, Tom was selected by the judges of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to be a member of the District's Lawyer Representative Committee. From 2013 to 2014, Tom served as co-chair of that committee. In 2009, Tom was selected by the judges of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California to that court's Bench-Bar Committee. From 2011 to 2012, Tom served as co-chair of that committee.

Prior to joining the Crowell & Moring, Tom was a partner in the San Francisco firm, Folger Levin & Kahn LLP, where he served on the firm's Executive Committee.

Tom was honored to serve as a law clerk to the Honorable Warren J. Ferguson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. During law school, he served as managing editor of the California Law Review, and from 1998 to 2008, and again from 2011 to the present, he has served as an alumni director of the California Law Review corporation. He was also a lecturer in law in Boalt's Moot Court Program, 1991-93.

Tom holds the highest peer rating afforded by Martindale.com.

Career & Education

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    • University of Notre Dame, B.A., English and governmental & international studies, with highest honors, 1983
    • University of California, Berkeley School of Law, J.D., 1986
    • University of Notre Dame, B.A., English and governmental & international studies, with highest honors, 1983
    • University of California, Berkeley School of Law, J.D., 1986
    • California
    • California
  • Professional Activities and Memberships

    • Bay Area Bankruptcy Forum, and Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco
    • Environmental Sections, California State Bar and Bar Association of San Francisco
    • Member (as Counsel to Trustees) of the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees; Member of President’s Circle

    Professional Activities and Memberships

    • Bay Area Bankruptcy Forum, and Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco
    • Environmental Sections, California State Bar and Bar Association of San Francisco
    • Member (as Counsel to Trustees) of the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees; Member of President’s Circle

Thomas's Insights

Firm News | 5 min read | 06.16.21

Civil Rights Groups Achieve Voting Rights Victory in Louisiana

New Orleans – June 16, 2021: Voice of the Experienced (VOTE), a Louisiana-based grassroots organization founded and run by formerly incarcerated people, and Advancement Project, a next-generation, multi-racial civil rights organization, along with Crowell & Moring LLP, celebrated the enactment of Act 127 – H.B. 378 in Louisiana, which was signed into law on June 10, 2021. The bill will ensure that individuals sentenced only to probation will not lose their voting rights due to a felony conviction, and will prevent government officials from expending unnecessary resources to suspend voting rights, and then having to work to restore them for people who should not have been suspended from voter rolls in the first place. More than 30,000 people are currently estimated to be on probation in Louisiana, and the new law will help additional people each year as new individuals are sentenced to probation....

Representative Matters

BANKRUPTCY AND COMMERCIAL LITIGATION

  • General bankruptcy counsel to the Chapter 7 Trustee in UCBH Holdings, Inc., a failed bank holding company that once held operations in six states, Taiwan, and the People's Republic of China.
  • General bankruptcy counsel to the Chapter 11 Trustee in complex bankruptcy matter involving a software entrepreneur and a number of  the software companies that he founded. The case was one of the largest personal bankruptcy cases filed in the Northern District of California, with $160MM in claimed assets and $190MM in scheduled liabilities.
  • Special litigation counsel in a fraudulent transfer action on behalf of the bankruptcy estate of a major international law firm that had sold five of its offices to a major competitor. Won a $2.95 million settlement from the acquiring firm for the estate.
  • General bankruptcy counsel to the Chapter 7 Trustee of the consolidated estate of several San Francisco hotel companies and their individual owners.
  • Counsel to Enterprise Holdings, Inc., regarding disputes arising out of Enterprise's 2007 acquisition of the National Car Rental and Alamo Rent a Car brands through their owner, Vanguard Car Rental Holdings LLC.

ENVIRONMENTAL

  • Counsel to United Airlines regarding environmental cost recovery (and related complex lease claims) asserted by the City and County of San Francisco concerning the San Francisco International Airport, as well as related claims among the allegedly responsible parties and claims of the responsible regulatory agency (the California Regional Water Quality Control Board).
  • Final liaison and coordinating counsel for the defense group in the United States, et al., v. Stringfellow, et al., CERCLA cost recovery action. The Stringfellow site and Love Canal have often been cited as the driving motivation behind the enactment of the Superfund law. Tom represented the client, The Deutsch Company, joining the defense team in 1987, and participating in the development of the strategy and the litigation of two trials (jury, 1989; court, 1992) that established the liability and percentage share of the State of California. Tom ultimately coordinated the negotiations of settlements with the State of California (1998, 2002) and the United States (2004), as well as the litigation (1999-2001) and ultimate settlements (2001) of litigation against third-party defendants who had not shared with Deutsch and other defendants in the burdens of cleaning up the site until the State assumed responsibility.
  • Represented a branch of Philips Electronics North America Corporation as plaintiff in a seven-week CERCLA cost recovery trial in U.S. District Court concerning Philips' claims regarding $23MM in environmental costs and $11MM in prejudgment interest. Trial resulted in findings in plaintiff's favor, an award of prejudgment interest, and a settlement from the two parties who had not participated in the clean-up.
  • Represented both plaintiffs and defendants in numerous environmental cost recovery litigations, as well as in related negotiations with responsible governmental authorities.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

  • Represented a technology company in a five-week jury trial in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for claims including trade secrets, unfair competition, and copyright violation. The representation resulted in a confidential settlement after trial.
  • Represented a technology company in a trade secret/unfair competition case where the client's patent applications were disclosed to a competitor in regard to a potential joint venture under a non-disclosure agreement. The competitor improperly employed the information confided to it, while denying the improper use in litigation. Litigation resulted in a settlement agreement barring the competitor's use of the client's technology.

Thomas's Insights

Firm News | 5 min read | 06.16.21

Civil Rights Groups Achieve Voting Rights Victory in Louisiana

New Orleans – June 16, 2021: Voice of the Experienced (VOTE), a Louisiana-based grassroots organization founded and run by formerly incarcerated people, and Advancement Project, a next-generation, multi-racial civil rights organization, along with Crowell & Moring LLP, celebrated the enactment of Act 127 – H.B. 378 in Louisiana, which was signed into law on June 10, 2021. The bill will ensure that individuals sentenced only to probation will not lose their voting rights due to a felony conviction, and will prevent government officials from expending unnecessary resources to suspend voting rights, and then having to work to restore them for people who should not have been suspended from voter rolls in the first place. More than 30,000 people are currently estimated to be on probation in Louisiana, and the new law will help additional people each year as new individuals are sentenced to probation....

Thomas's Insights

Firm News | 5 min read | 06.16.21

Civil Rights Groups Achieve Voting Rights Victory in Louisiana

New Orleans – June 16, 2021: Voice of the Experienced (VOTE), a Louisiana-based grassroots organization founded and run by formerly incarcerated people, and Advancement Project, a next-generation, multi-racial civil rights organization, along with Crowell & Moring LLP, celebrated the enactment of Act 127 – H.B. 378 in Louisiana, which was signed into law on June 10, 2021. The bill will ensure that individuals sentenced only to probation will not lose their voting rights due to a felony conviction, and will prevent government officials from expending unnecessary resources to suspend voting rights, and then having to work to restore them for people who should not have been suspended from voter rolls in the first place. More than 30,000 people are currently estimated to be on probation in Louisiana, and the new law will help additional people each year as new individuals are sentenced to probation....