Thomas A. Connelly

Knowledgeable. Passionate. Innovative. Creative. Tenacious. Versatile. Responsive

Thomas A. Connelly has been called all those things by his clients. And his clients call him time after time when their businesses need legal expertise or if they are threatened with or embroiled in litigation of all types – from business formation and transactions to ownership disputes to contract disputes to protection of intellectual property or trade secrets to regulatory issues.  With a legal career that includes time spent as a prosecuting trial lawyer, in-house counsel for a Fortune 300 corporation, and 15 years in private practice at Beus Gilbert, PLLC, a high-powered nationally-recognized plaintiff’s firm specializing in high-stakes civil and commercial litigation, Tom has cross-discipline legal skills and experience to provide valuable and cost-effective legal and business advice to businesses ranging from start-ups to major corporations. While he is passionate about the law, and loves being in front of a judge or jury, having worked in corporate America and been a small business owner himself, he understands his business client’s needs and priorities and appreciates the importance of getting legal issues addressed quickly and efficiently so his clients can concentrate on tending to and growing their businesses. Tom doesn’t just practice law, he inhabits it. And his first and last question is always: “How can I help?”

 

Tom has represented clients in several industries, including cannabis and medical marijuana, where he has developed a recognized expertise, computers and technology, architecture and design, construction, medicine, hospitality, securities, and others. Some representative cases include:

 

• Representing a medical marijuana cultivation company in contract and regulatory disputes
• Successfully defending a medical marijuana cultivation company against a vendor suing for payment on a fraudulent purchase order
• Successfully defending a medical marijuana cultivation company against a lighting supplier who delivered non-conforming products
• Negotiating the early voluntary dismissal of a lawsuit against his cannabis industry client filed by an extraction company that failed to deliver the quality or quantity of concentrate called for by the contract and saving his client tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees in the process
• Receiving the 19^th highest jury verdict in 2017 in the State of Arizona for his client in a premise’s liability personal injury trial against a high-end health and racquet club
• Playing a key role by taking the deposition of the insurance adjuster in an insurance bad faith case that directly resulted in a $5 million-dollar settlement for his client
• Playing a key role representing a bankruptcy trustee and noteholders of a sub-prime auto lending enterprise in claims of fraud, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and aiding and abetting against a Big Six accounting firm and former company officers/directors, which resulted in nearly $30 million in recovery for his clients
• Played a key role in defending depositions and recognizing and implementing discovery strategies that resulted in his client settling claims of professional negligence and breach of fiduciary duties against a large Big Law law firm for $36 million
• Received a $5 million recovery in arbitration of a discrete legal issue involving deepening insolvency against a Big Six accounting firm
• Settled claims of fraud, negligence, and breach of fiduciary duties for $7 million against a Big Six accounting firm after getting the trial court’s dismissal of those claims reversed on appeal
• Negotiated and drafted software and other intellectual property licensing agreements, including joint venture agreements involving patents valued at more than $6.5 million
• Negotiated and drafted consulting services agreements in the cannabis industry between cultivators, dispensaries, and extraction companies
• Successfully defended former corporate executive against company seeking to enforce restrictive covenant
• Acting as outside counsel for medical marijuana cultivation company, dealing with lease issues, regulatory issues, employment issues, and many other operational issues
• First-chair trial lawyer for more than 100 bench and jury trials
• Authored more than 15 appellate briefs and argued numerous cases on appeal in the Ninth Circuit, Arizona, and Illinois appellate courts

 

 

Personal:

 

Outside of being a lawyer, Tom is a devoted dad who enjoys taking his family on trips skiing, surfing, and visiting exotic locales near and far.  His love for music takes him from arenas to clubs to see established bands and up-and-comers. He is widely read, writes prose, poetry and limericks, and enjoys making art out of photographs he takes with his iPhone.

 

 

EDUCATION & COURT ADMISSIONS

Education

• The John Marshall Law School – Juris Doctor, Cum Laude
• Loyola University Chicago – B.S., Mathematics & Computer Science (Double Major)

Bar Admissions

• Arizona
• U.S. District Court, District of Arizona
• Northern District Court, District of California
• Central District Court, District of California
• Southern District Court, District of California
• Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
• Pro Hac Vice: DE, FL, NJ, NY, UT

LEADERSHIP, MEMBERSHIP & HONORS

• Fellowship, Executive Office of the President of the United States, Washington, D.C.
• Former member, Illinois Commission on Electronic Commerce and Crime
• Faculty, Computer Forensics & Electronic Discovery in Arizona, Lorman Educ. Services
• Faculty, Document Retention and Destruction in Arizona, Lorman Educ. Services
• Contributor, Security Requirements and Evidentiary Issues in the Interchange of Electronic Documents: Steps Toward Developing a Security Policy, 12 J. Marshall J. Comp. & Info. L. 425