Thomas R. Valen

Mr. Valen represents an exceptional range of domestic and international clients in major complex dispute resolution and business counseling matters in the United States and abroad. His experience, business judgment, and training help him serve the needs of corporations and individuals in both civil and criminal litigation, enabling him to efficiently handle his clients’ most significant matters involving either governmental or private claims, including commercial litigation, white collar criminal defense, internal investigations, and shareholder disputes. Mr. Valen’s flexible, practical approach to dispute resolution enables him to represent his client’s needs in whatever forum a dispute may arise.

Mr. Valen’s broad experience in dispute resolution and business counseling is reflected in the wide range of matters he has successfully handled for both companies and individual clients. Such matters include:

• Representing the owner of a multibillion-dollar family investment fund regarding governmental investigations and potential claims against or by brokers arising out of a margin squeeze that led to the liquidation of the fund
• Representing on appeal the former President of a major bank who had been convicted of criminal charges based on how the bank reported the status of its loan portfolio to regulators and, with the team, winning a reversal of the convictions in a landmark ruling about the government’s burden of proof in false statements prosecutions
• Representing the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement in a successful challenge to a U.S. Department of Justice interpretation of the federal wire act that potentially would have criminalized state-authorized online gambling
• Representing the Presiding Officers of the New Jersey Legislature in federal court litigation regarding New Jersey’s successful effort to legalize wagering on professional and collegiate sporting events, which resulted in the United States Supreme Court striking down a decades-old federal statute as an unconstitutional intrusion on the sovereignty of the states
• Representing a major utility company in federal litigation regarding underwater high-voltage electrical cables that were damaged as a result of a pier collapse, causing synthetic oil used as a coolant in the cables to leak into the Hudson River
• Representing that same utility in successfully defending at both the trial and appellate levels class action claims regarding the installation of solar panels on utility and lighting poles
• Representing a well-known philanthropist against claims that charitable contributions he made to aid victims of the civil war in Sri Lanka were, in fact, intended and used to support acts of terrorism
• Successfully defending a multibillion-dollar hedge fund and its manager against criminal and regulatory charges of insider trading in both the United States and Asia
• Successfully representing the management of a large construction company in litigation regarding the termination and forced buy-out of a former chief operating officer and minority shareholder
• Representing an international pharmaceutical company in the successful defense of claims that it improperly refused to allow certain stock option grants to be exercised
• Representing the government of Saudi Arabia to coordinate the defenses of Saudi nationals charged with federal crimes in the District of New Jersey
• Counseling a large real estate development company regarding publicly beneficial development projects in urban areas in New Jersey
• Counseling the CEO of a large family-owned construction company in resolving shareholder disputes that threatened the efficient management of the company
• Representing multiple auto manufacturers in defense of litigation in federal court in New York regarding the manufacturers’ alleged participation in the corruption of the United Nation’s Oil for Food Program in Iraq
• Representing European banks in defense of multiple claims in federal courts from New York to California seeking to hold the banks liable for violations of international law by governments with which the banks did business
• Representing European companies and countries in obtaining the dismissals of numerous lawsuits seeking damages for injuries arising out of World War II, and in establishing a charitable foundation to voluntarily assist Holocaust survivors

These significant matters have resulted in numerous important published decisions, including:

Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Ass’n, 138 S.Ct. 1461 (2018)

U.S. v. Harra 985 F.3d 196 (3d Cir. 2021)

NCAA v. Governor of N.J., 832 F.3d 389 (3d Cir. 2016) (en banc)

NCAA v. Governor of N.J., 799 F.3d 259 (3d Cir. 2015)

Republic of Iraq v. ABB AG, 768 F.3d 145 (2nd Cir. 2014)

Deirmenjian v. Deutsche Bank, A.G., 2013 WL 6407025 (9th Cir. Dec. 9, 2013)

NCAA v. Governor of N.J., 730 F.3d 208 (3d Cir. 2013)

Gross v. German Foundation Industrial Initiative, 549 F.3d 605 (3d Cir. N.J. 2008)

Khulumani v. Barclay National Bank Ltd., 504 F. 3d 254 (2nd Cir. 2007)

United States v. Clark, 237 F. 3d 293 (3d. Cir. 2001)

Public Service Electric and Gas Co. v. Newport Associates Development Co., 2021 WL 2374389 (D.N.J. June 9, 2021)

Goodman v. Ortiz, 2020 WL 5015613 (D.N.J. Aug. 25, 2020)

New England Petroleum LP v. Daibes Oil, LLC, 2018 WL 1358819 (D.N.J. Mar. 16, 2018)

City of Margate v. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, 2017 WL 3437780 (D.N.J. Aug. 10, 2017)

Napier v. Public Service Electric and Gas Co., 2014 WL 3444670 (N.J. App. Div. July 15, 2014)

Krishanthi v. Rajaratnam, 2014 WL 1669873 (D.N.J. April 28, 2014)

Republic of Iraq v. ABB AG, 920 F.Supp.2d 517 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 6, 2013)

Krishanthi v. Rajaratnam, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88788 (D.N.J. Aug. 26, 2010)

Deirmenjian v. Deutsche Bank, A.G., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86957 (C.D. Cal. July 30, 2010)

Develcom Funding, LLC v. American Atlantic Co., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81960 (D.N.J. Sept. 9, 2009)

Sery v. Federal Business Centers Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31647 (D.N.J. Sept. 15, 2008)

Deirmenjian v. Deutsche Bank, A.G., 526 F. Supp. 2d 1068 (C.D. Cal. 2007)

Gross v. German Foundation, 499 F. Supp. 2d 606 (D.N.J. 2007)

In re Oxus Gold PLC, 2007 U.S. Dist. Lexis 24061 (D.N.J. Apr. 2, 2007)

In re Nazi Era, 236 FRD 231 (D.N.J. 2006)

Fraternity Fund Ltd. vs. Beacon Hill Asset Mgmt. LLC, 376 F. Supp. 2d 443 (S.D.N.Y. 2005)

Gross v. German Foundation Industrial Initiative, 320 F. Supp. 2d 235 (D.N.J. 2004)

United States v. Alkaabi, 223 F. Supp. 2d 583 (D.N.J. 2002)

In re Nazi Era Cases Against German Defendants Litigation, 2002 WL 31454184 (D.N.J. June 5, 2002)

In re Nazi Era Cases Against German Defendants Litigation, 198 FRD 429 (D.N.J. 2000)

Burger-Fisher v. Degussa AG, 65 F. Supp. 2d 248 (D.N.J. 1999)