Thomas V. Panoff

Tom’s wide-ranging financial services practice covers complex litigation and multi-defendant class actions and mass actions involving mortgage securitization, RICO, fraud, conspiracy, discrimination, Ponzi schemes, corporate veil piercing, anti-money laundering, broker-dealer disputes, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS), mergers and acquisitions, qui tam, and numerous consumer statutes (e.g., FCRA, FDCPA, RESPA, TCPA, TILA, etc.). Tom also regularly advises fintech companies on legislative, compliance, regulatory and litigation matters.

Internal investigations that Tom conducts for companies and boards of directors are frequently global in scope. Tom has extensive experience working with C-suite executives and boards in managing media strategy surrounding investigations and implementing post-investigation remediation plans.

Tom’s antitrust practice, which frequently involves representing financial institutions, includes criminal antitrust investigations before the Department of Justice and foreign competition authorities and civil lawsuits involving alleged price fixing, market allocation, attempted monopolization and tying. Tom also has extensive experience in merger review matters.

Tom also regularly represents clients in high-stakes commercial disputes involving trade secrets and intellectual property, breach of contract, indemnification, cybersecurity and executive-level non-competition issues, many of which are global in nature.

Tom joined Mayer Brown after serving as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Robert P. Young, Jr. of the Michigan Supreme Court.

• Advised numerous hedge funds and private equity firms in evaluating potential litigation exposure for pools of assets.
• Represented national mortgage lenders and servicers in class actions and mass actions around the country defending against alleged violations of various consumer statutes and common law causes of action.
  • Representative Opinions: Nicklaw v. CitiMortgage, Inc., 839 F.3d 998 (11th Cir. 2016), reh’g denied,855 F.3d 1265 (11th Cir. 2017); Zia v. CitiMortgage, Inc., 210 F. Supp. 3d 1334 (S.D. Fla. 2016); Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Wolf, 444 S.W.3d 685 (Tex. App. 2014); Moody v. CitiMortgage, Inc., 32 F. Supp. 3d 869 (W.D. Mich. 2014); Abraham v. Am. Home Mortg Servicing, Inc., 947 F. Supp 2d 222 (E.D. N.Y. 2013).
• Represented multinational corporations in criminal antitrust and merger review investigations before the Department of Justice and foreign competition authorities.
• Represented numerous multinational corporations in multi-billion dollar civil antitrust cases alleging price fixing, market allocation, attempted monopolization and tying. Industries involved include, financial services, chemicals, computer memory technology and steel.
• Represented commodities exchanges and national brokerages in merger and acquisition litigation.
• Represented international auto manufacturer in €400 million ICC arbitration.