Thomas F. Koegel

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.