Thomas J. Moloney is a partner of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, based in the New York office. His practice focuses on big case and complex dispute resolution and includes securities, mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcy and commercial litigation matters and bankruptcy and work-out advice to both debtors and creditors. He has lectured and written extensively on litigation and bankruptcy topics, including on the subjects of electronic discovery and derivatives litigation, including as co-author of the new chapter on Derivatives Litigation in the forthcoming Third Edition of the treatise
Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts.
Mr. Moloney is distinguished as one of the country's best litigators by
Chambers USA, which describes him in the 2011
Chambers USA guide as receiving "praise for his excellent writing skills and impressive courtroom presence." He has also been recognized as a "bankruptcy litigation star" by
Benchmark Litigation: The Definitive Guide to America’s Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys and he was recognized by
Super Lawyers magazine,
The Legal 500 U.S. and
Lawdragon 500: Leading Lawyers in America for his commercial litigation practice. In 2011, Mr. Moloney was recognized as a "Litigator of the Week" by
The American Lawyer and as a "Most Valuable Practitioner" by
Law360 for his securities litigation expertise.
His major current and recent projects include: representing a number of major financial institutions both in the Lehman and Madoff-related bankruptcies and SIPC proceedings – where, in the Lehman case, he was recently successful in representing Lehman’s major derivatives counterparties in negotiating a derivatives claims protocol and a consensual Lehman plan, and in the Madoff case, he achieved a groundbreaking decision by Judge Rakoff dismissing on standing grounds the Madoff Trustee’s $8.5 billion fraud claims against certain major financial institutions; representing BHP Billiton in connection with litigation stemming from BHP Billiton’s unsolicited $40 billion all-cash offer to acquire PotashCorp; defending a major oil trading entity in the Semgroup Bankruptcy against claims based on local oil and gas lien and trust laws; defending major financial institutions in litigations involving claims based on rogue trading and the collapse of 7 WTC; representing a defendant in a dispute arising from an M&A transaction, involving disputed post-acquisition price adjustments and breach of warranty claims and successfully defending at trial and on appeal a large chemical company in a dispute involving a petrochemicals plant.
Mr. Moloney’s significant projects in the recent past include representing: the principal commercial paper dealer defendant in the Enron Commercial Paper litigation in a favorable settlement of such claims; representing a major financial institution in the litigation and successful settlement of claims arising from the close-out of derivative contracts; a Mexican financial intermediary successfully at trial in establishing that securities customers of Refco Capital Markets, Ltd. are entitled to the preferential distribution scheme established for stockbroker liquidations; an investment bank successfully at trial in a litigation resulting from the close-out of a prime brokerage relationship; The Bond Market Association in its analysis and report with respect to how the fixed income markets reacted to the tragic occurrences of 9/11 and to the Con Ed blackout; the SIPC trustee of Adler Coleman, the first major clearing firm to fail and at the time, the largest liquidation in SIPC’s history, successfully at trial in a major fraudulent conveyance litigation and in connection with the Trustee’s groundbreaking investigation of the involvement of the Mob on Wall Street; Kidder Peabody & Co. Incorporated in successfully resolving the Trustee investigation, bankruptcy plan and investor litigation arising from the failure of the Askin managed Granite hedge funds and the New York Banking Department in connection with its seizure of the New York Agency of BCCI and, in connection with that assignment, he successfully argued a major case in the New York Court of Appeals concerning the authority of the Superintendent under New York’s bank liquidation statute.
Mr. Moloney has also played a leading role in some of the largest corporate restructurings, including currently acting as counsel for major creditors for Lehman in connection with its proposed restructuring plan and in the past representing, among others, the Industry Official Creditors Committee in the Texaco, Inc. Chapter 11 case; the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation in the first LTV Chapter 11 case; the secured bank group in the Global Marine Chapter 11 case and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Credit Brands. He also was the restructuring counsel for Empresa Electrica del Norte Grande S.A. (a/k/a Edelnor), a large Chilean power company; Vencor Inc. (now known as Kindred Healthcare), a large publicly owned health care company; Bridge Information Systems, Inc., a leading provider of financial information; L. F. Rothschild Inc., the former investment banking firm; Pan American Corporation, the airline; and Anglo Energy, a large oil and gas exploration company, in their Chapter 11 reorganization cases; and for Metallgesellschasft A.G. in connection with its worldwide out-of-court restructuring.
Mr. Moloney began work at the firm in 1976 and became a partner in 1984. He received his J.D. degree from New York University School of Law in 1976, where he graduated
cum laude and was an editor of the Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. Mr. Moloney received his undergraduate degree from Columbia College in 1973. Mr. Moloney is a member of the Bar of the State of New York and is admitted to practice before a variety of State and Federal Courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second, Third and Fourth Circuits, and the United States District Courts for the Southern, Eastern and Northern Districts of New York. Mr. Moloney is also a former member of the Court-appointed mediation panels for the Eastern District of New York and the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
Mr. Moloney is the former Chairman of the Committee on Legal Assistance of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and is the Chairman of the Business Advisory Council for Washington Irving, a New York City Public High School. For his work with the high school, Mr. Moloney has received several honors, including the City of New York’s Certificate of Recognition, the Brooke Russell Astor Award Special Citation and the Cus D’Amato Community Service Neighborhood Hero award. Mr. Moloney was recently appointed by the Mayor of New York to the City’s Workforce Improvement Board. He is also a former member of the Board of Directors of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and a former assistant counsel to the Governor’s Judicial Nominating Committee.