Find Lawyers

C. Thomas Kruse heads the firm’s Complex Commercial Litigation group. He has experience trying cases in court and in arbitrations in many areas, including international commercial disputes, securities litigation, energy litigation, construction contracts, commercial arbitrations, intellectual property, technology issues and complex “mass tort” litigation. He has recently been listed in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in general commercial litigation, The Best Lawyers in America in business litigation and as a “Top 100 in Texas” lawyer in Texas Super Lawyers. Mr. Kruse practices in federal and state courts, including trial and appeals, and he handles arbitrations before national and international bodies such as the American Arbitration Association (domestic and international cases), the ICC Court of Arbitration, and the London Court of Arbitration.

Examples of matters that Mr. Kruse has recently handled include the following results:

Litigation and Trials

• handled matter as trial counsel for U.S. automobile manufacturer on trademark infringement and Lanham Act issues at trial, for damages and injunctive relief, in federal court in Houston, Texas, with final judgment issued in favor of the client;
• worked as co-counsel on software issues involving trade secret misappropriation in Texas state district court involving international company handling “real time” consumer data and web portals for financial institutions, which resulted in a settlement for the client;
• acted as lead trial counsel for a major U.S. pharmaceutical and medical supply distribution company on contract claims, governmental regulatory compliance, and related issues, in federal court in Texas, with a settlement obtained for the client of $13.8 million
• worked as co-counsel on a multimillion-dollar oil and gas corporate dissolution in Texas federal and state district courts, with resolution by court order;
• acted as trial counsel in a $42 million penalty enforcement case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice in federal court in Texas and obtained an agreed dismissal of the action by the U.S. prior to trial of all penalties after two years of litigation;
• acted as lead counsel in a series of lawsuits involving wrongful death claims in Texas State Court, which settled after mandamus proceedings to the Texas Supreme Court;
• acted as counsel to a wood product company in a patent infringement case and obtained a stay of all federal court proceedings against his client;
• worked in federal court as trial counsel to a FORTUNE 500 medical technology firm over a stock dispute with over $55 million at issue and obtained a declaratory judgment in his client’s favor on all claims;
• handled the defense of a mass tort claim for an oil refining company which resulted in a dismissal of the claims against the client in lawsuits;
• handled litigation of a major toxic tort case with over 17,000 claims filed for a major energy company, including a successful trial verdict reported in the National Law Journal as one of the year’s top ten defense verdicts;
• obtained a dismissal with prejudice of all claims in a mass tort case brought by plaintiffs in state court in Mississippi seeking millions of dollars against a major international wood and wood product manufacturer;
• acted as lead counsel handling thousands of claims and related litigation from an oil spill in Louisiana for a major energy company, including the successful defense of attempts to certify a class of plaintiffs in a Louisiana trial court to bring over $10 million in damages;
• obtained a large settlement and recovery in favor of a financial institution in lawsuits filed in state courts in Texas and New Jersey;
• successfully argued an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for a world insurance market corporation in London relating to a multibillion-dollar premium fund;
• handled a federal class action securities fraud matter for an NYSE-traded company and related state court cases and arbitrations with over a billion dollars alleged in damages by the class plaintiffs;
• acted as lead counsel in recovering several million dollars in royalty rights due to an oil company from a group of wells operated in West Texas; and
• obtained summary judgment in a mass tort lawsuit by over 4,000 plaintiffs in Texas State Court against a chemical manufacturing company.

Arbitration

• acted as lead counsel in arbitration trial of a matter for an international engineering company involving damages against a subcontractor on the construction of an ethylene plant, with trial in Houston, Texas, under the AAA, and resolution of the matter during trial in a favorable settlement to the client;
• handled an arbitration claim for a major international engineering company traded on the NYSE and obtained a multimillion-dollar settlement and recovery for the client arising from construction of a major Gulf Coast petrochemical plant project in an AAA arbitration;
• acted as lead counsel for a major offshore oil field supply and engineering company in an international arbitration before the ICC Court of Arbitration of a contractual dispute and obtained an arbitration award and federal court judgment in his client’s favor regarding equipment sold to a European company;
• acted as lead counsel for a major engineering company in handling the appeal which overturned in part a $14 million international arbitration award from the ICC Court of Arbitration involving a construction project in South America;
• worked as lead counsel for a major U.S. construction firm in resolving claims of liquidated damages, penalties, and change order claims for millions of dollars in an AAA Arbitration and related federal court litigation in Texas; and
• worked as counsel to a Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturer in resolving licensing issues and claims in the ICC Court of Arbitration and related federal court cases in the United States.

Mr. Kruse is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He has authored numerous articles on energy and litigation issues, is a frequent speaker for CE seminars on the topics of trial and litigation and has been quoted by such media outlets and publications as Bloomberg News, Business Finance and the Associated Press. He is a Fellow of the Houston and Texas Bar Foundations, and a member of the Houston and American Bar Associations. Mr. Kruse is listed in the Best Lawyers in America for 2010 in Commercial Litigation and has been elected a Super Lawyer in Business Litigation in the Texas Lawyer from 2005 to 2009 (including being listed in the Top 100 Attorneys in Texas). He was also listed in H Houston Magazine as a Top Lawyer in Commercial Litigation for 2005 and 2006 and he has been listed in Corporate Counsel in Business Litigation from 2007 to present.

Mr. Kruse’s publications and presentations include:

• “Current Trends in E-Discovery,” presented at the Federal Law Conference in South Padre Island, Texas (October 2011)
• “Expert Witness Update and Attorneys as Testifying Experts (Except on Attorney’s Fees),” State Bar of Texas’ 2007 Advanced Civil Trial Course Book, co-author with Matt Caligur (2007)
• “Alliances and Tactics Involving Multiple-Parties: From No-Deal Deals to Dismissals with Side Agreements,” presented to the University of Houston CLE Litigation and Trial Tactics Conference (April and May 2007)
• “Prepare Clients for the New Rules of Electronic Discovery,” Texas Lawyer, co-author with Matt Caligur (August 2006)
• “E-Discovery, Document Retention and Maintaining the Attorney-Client Privilege,” presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting: Business Law and Corporate Counsel CLE for the State Bar of Texas
• “Prepare for Problems: Negotiate International Arbitration Clause,” Houston Business Journal (May 7, 2004)
• “Dispute Resolution and Mitigation of Risk in an International Contract,” Africa Oil & Gas Forum, Greater Houston Business Council in Houston, Texas (November 2003)
• “Avoiding Megalosses in Drafting the Provisions of Electric Power Trading Contracts,” Corporate Counsel Review, Journal of the Corporate Counsel Section, State Bar of Texas, Volume XVI, Number 2 (November 1997)

Mr. Kruse served as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Ricardo H. Hinojosa of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, McAllen Division, in 1989-1990.