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Thomas R. Lucchesi

Thomas Lucchesi has more than 26 years of experience as a trial lawyer representing clients in commercial disputes. He has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal courts, including bankruptcy courts, throughout the United States. Mr. Lucchesi has participated in more than 25 trials, including jury trials, and in dozens of arbitration and mediation proceedings. He has appeared before numerous state and federal appellate courts.

Mr. Lucchesi’s litigation experience includes contract, general commercial, landlord-tenant, intellectual property, construction, fraud, negligence, legal malpractice and bankruptcy issues involving a wide range of clients, from sophisticated financial institutions to individuals and entrepreneurs. Mr. Lucchesi is one of four litigators who regularly represents the firm and its attorneys in legal malpractice and ethics matters.

Mr. Lucchesi recently completed a near two-year involvement representing the SIPA Trustee in the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. In that representation, Mr. Lucchesi managed several teams of firm attorneys and forensic experts in their investigation of Bernard Madoff’s fraud. Mr. Lucchesi was a member of the core strategy team that oversaw the work that led to the filing of more than 1,000 lawsuits seeking to recover funds for the Customer Fund.

For a five-year period ending in 2007, Mr. Lucchesi was part of a team of lawyers representing a national bank in a residual value insurance dispute involving one of the world’s largest reinsurance organizations. In that case, Mr. Lucchesi led the part of the team responsible for proving the bank’s losses on its portfolio of leased vehicles. The case resulted in a settlement of more than $250 million.

In 2007, Mr. Lucchesi successfully defended a national automotive finance company in a seven-day arbitration involving a $100 million claim by a third-party service provider for breach of contract and theft of trade secrets.

In 2007, Mr. Lucchesi obtained final judgment in favor of a major oil company in a lawsuit brought by several Cleveland-area dealers alleging unfair wholesale pricing of gasoline. In that case, Mr. Lucchesi successfully argued before the Ohio Supreme Court that Ohio law required an objective standard of good faith for open price terms under the Uniform Commercial Code.

In 2001, Mr. Lucchesi, as lead trial lawyer, represented an individual in the United States District Court in a breach of contract claim against a national operator of self-storage facilities. Following a one-week trial, the jury returned a verdict of more than $6 million against the storage facility operator.

In 1996, Mr. Lucchesi was part of a trial team representing a Canadian plush toy distributor in its breach of contract claim against the creators of a popular children’s character. In that case, after an eight-day trial, the jury awarded the client $3.8 million.

Mr. Lucchesi, in 1995, as lead trial lawyer, successfully prosecuted a breach of contract claim for an environmental waste transporter. The ten-day trial resulted in a judgment of $8.1 million for the client.

In the commercial litigation context, Mr. Lucchesi has represented both lenders and borrowers in lender liability cases and loan workout and restructuring situations. In 1992, he successfully represented a lender in an eight-day jury trial involving a defaulting borrower’s claims of lender liability, improper collection practices and other tortious conduct amounting to $10 million in alleged damages.

In the area of construction law, Mr. Lucchesi has represented owners, developers, contractors, subcontractors, material suppliers and design professionals in a variety of contexts, including litigation. In one case, he obtained an injunction that permitted him to travel to New Jersey to repossess, with the aid of armed guards and local police, six truckloads of fabricated steel essential to the timely completion of a major construction project in downtown Cleveland.