Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Member and former Global Chair of Latham’s Product Liability, Mass Torts & Consumer Class Actions Practice.
Trial lawyer who has tried cases in every region of the US. My practice focuses on difficult and high-profile lawsuits, including toxic tort, high-stakes energy, utility, resource and business contract, and tort disputes.
Tried and won the high-profile US$4 billion Pro Football Lockout Fund trial. Defended and won the lead high school football concussion class action. Recently tried and won the CONSOL Energy US$765 million contract case. Won the Gulf Spill MDL cases for the chemical dispersant manufacturer.
My energy and utility litigation practice covers a wide variety of cases, including trials involving nuclear power plants and the management and operation of electric generating plants. Served as lead trial counsel in the first steam generator replacement case; tried a six-month jury trial over a pressure-suppression containment system; tried the qui tam nuclear security case at the Rocky Flats Arsenal. Extensive upstream and downstream oil and gas trial experience.
Tried cases arising from catastrophic industrial accidents (including the tragic Ford-Rouge powerhouse explosion), served as lead trial counsel in 5,000 personal injury toxic tort suits in Mississippi, and have successfully defended toxic tort cases in California, Illinois, Michigan, Louisiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Nebraska.
Serve as professor of Intensive Trial Advocacy at Cornell University Law School. Featured in The American Lawyer: "On the Gridiron, the Ice, or in the Court, Latham Partner Thomas Heiden Plays to Win." Chaired the Practicing Law Institute Faculty on Corporate Responsibility for seven years. Frequent guest on CNN's "Big Trials of the Day" segment. Coached a North American Championship hockey team.
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Experience
· Partner, Latham & Watkins, Chicago and Houston,
(October, 2002 - Present)
· Chicago Sports Commission, Board of Directors
(2010 - Present)
· University of Notre Dame, College of Arts and Letters
Board (2011 - 2019)
· Equal Justice Works, Board of Counsellors
(2016 - Present)
· Cornell University Law School, Faculty - Intensive Trial
Advocacy (2015 - Present)
· Chair, American College of Trial Lawyers - Diversity
Trial Advocacy Program (2019 - Present)
Chair, American College of Trial Lawyers - Corporate
Trial Advocacy Program (2019 - Present)
Education
· JD, Cornell Law School, 1971
· BA, University of Notre Dame, 1967