Thomas V. Panoff

Tom Panoff is a partner in the Business Trial Practice Group in the firm's Chicago office. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and investigations across a variety of industries, including financial services, fintech, private equity, hedge fund, healthcare, pharmaceutical, insurance, technology, manufacturing, and consumer goods. Tom has appeared before trial and appellate courts across the country, having litigated matters or handled investigations in over 30 states and nearly 50 U.S. district courts. In addition to his litigation and investigations practice, Tom advises boards of directors and C-suite executives on enterprise risk and compliance strategy.

Tom is active in the pro bono legal community, serving on the executive committee and board of directors for the Chicago Bar Foundation, a charitable organization that supports dozens of legal aid organizations annually in the Chicago area.

Areas of Practice

Financial Services: Tom represents leading banks, fintechs, mortgage lenders, alternative investment managers, and other financial institutions in their most complex and high-profile matters, including: class actions, multi-district litigation, mass arbitrations, RICO, fraud, conspiracy, false claims, tax, discrimination, securitization, commercial real estate, Ponzi schemes, kickbacks, corporate veil piercing, anti-money laundering, broker-dealer disputes, bankruptcy, data privacy, mergers and acquisitions, and numerous consumer statutes.

Antitrust & Competition: Tom’s antitrust practice includes representation of financial services, insurance, private equity, hedge fund, healthcare, chemical, pharmaceutical, steel, automotive, and consumer goods companies in claims involving alleged price fixing, market allocation, attempted monopolization and tying. Such litigation and advisory matters often involve parallel investigations before the Department of Justice and foreign competition authorities.

Class Actions & Complex Commercial Disputes: Tom advises and represents clients in class actions creating enterprise-level risk and other high-stakes commercial disputes on issues such as trade secrets and intellectual property, breach of contract, commercial real estate, indemnification, cybersecurity and executive-level non-competition.

Private Equity & Hedge Funds: Tom represents private equity firms and hedge funds in various litigation and advisory matters, including post-closing disputes, antitrust, breach of contract, earn-outs, indemnification and fraudulent conveyance claims.

Investigations: Internal investigations that Tom conducts for companies and boards of directors are often global in scope and arise from both governmental inquires and through internal reporting channels. Tom has extensive experience working with C-suite executives and boards of directors in managing media strategy surrounding investigations and implementing post-investigation remediation plans.

Articles

• "Merger Enforcers put PE Deals under the Microscope," June 9, 2023
• "Understanding the True Scope of a Financial Firm’s Exposure to Crypto," December 21, 2022
• "Time for a New Look at Interlocking Board Directorate History," Law360, December 8, 2022
• "Heading Into 2022, Fintech Antitrust Strategy Isn't Optional," Law360, November 19, 2021
• "Representing Financial Services Clients in Class Actions," Practical Law: The Journal, June/July 2021

Consumer Finance and Fintech Blog Posts

• "Swipe Fee Saga Continues: OCC and Trade Groups Clash with Illinois AG," October 11, 2024

• "Scrutiny of Cash Sweep Programs Intensifies as Brokers Face Wave of Class Action Suits," August 9, 2024
• "Swipe Fee Showdown: Illinois Passes Novel Payments Law," June 21, 2024

Media Mentions

Speaking Engagements

• Speaker, "Using Open Finance and APIs to Unlock New Revenue Streams," Lend360, September 12, 2024

Memberships

Board of Directors, Chicago Bar Foundation