Thomas J. Wiegand

Tom Wiegand is a trial lawyer who represents clients across the country in complex business litigation, class actions, white collar criminal matters, antitrust matters, personal and family trust and estate disputes, and state and federal government investigations. 

Mr. Wiegand gained his litigation and trial experience over 20 years at Winston & Strawn LLP before joining MoloLamken in 2011. Mr. Wiegand has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in complex business litigation matters involving a wide variety of claims, including securities claims, statutory and common law fraud, common law and UCC contract claims, fiduciary duty, and myriad federal and state statutory claims, including RICO, TILA, the Sherman Act, and FCRA. He has represented clients—classes, opt-outs, defendants, and class counsel—in numerous state and federal class actions, including federal class and mass joinder cases that are grouped through the federal MDL Panel.

Mr. Wiegand also has an active ADR practice. He spent his first two years after law school working closely with Prof. Roger Fisher, author of Getting to Yes, at both the Harvard Negotiation Project and his consulting business. Then over the last three years Mr. Wiegand has mediated over 50 cases involving a broad range of commercial disputes. He also sits as an arbitrator, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and teaches ADR to law students. In these ways Mr. Wiegand finds satisfaction in helping parties resolve their disputes without the further aid of a court. Learn more about his mediation practice here.

Representative Matters

• Obtaining favorable result at arbitration for Spanish pharmaceutical start-up in dispute over early round funding
• Representing objecting class members in NCAA $2.7B settlement and achieving improvements to the settlement
• Obtaining three reversals in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals of denials of motions to compel arbitration by the trial court (Berkeley County School District v. Hub International, 944 F.3d 225 (2019), 2022 WL 17974626, and 130 F.4th 396 (2025))
• Obtaining federal appellate court reversal of trial court order that denied remand to state court under CAFA of a plaintiff class action (Sudholt v. Country Mutual Ins. Co., 83 F.4th 621 (7th Cir. 2023))
• Representing several RMBS Trustees in repurchase claims against originators of subprime home mortgage loans based on breaches of representations and warranties
• Representing an Asian government in a U.S. proceeding relating to enforcing an arbitral award
• Obtaining favorable award for class appellate counsel who successfully challenged sufficiency of class settlement
• Obtaining favorable award for counsel representing thousands of individual named plaintiffs in context of class proceedings and settlement
• Representing and advising beneficiaries and trustees in New York Surrogate's Court relating to substantial private trusts
• Providing appellate case assessment for ongoing IP litigation
• Obtaining summary judgment on behalf of Atlas Van Lines defeating claims in two separate putative class actions under the Motor Carrier Act
• Obtaining at arbitration an order to refund client’s entire investment in a feature-length film project based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Interpreter of Maladies
• Representing former NFL athletes in objecting to class settlement regarding concussions and achieving improvements to the settlement
• Obtaining favorable settlement for professional service firm against group of former employees and their new employer for breach of fiduciary duty
• Obtaining favorable settlement for group of Google employees who were sued by their former employer relating to a non-compete agreement
• Obtaining favorable settlement against ad agency and its client that infringed Car-Freshner’s famous trademarks
• Defeating motion for class certification of a set of consolidated class actions involving the recall by the CPSC of over 4 million units of a children’s arts and crafts toy
• Defeating named plaintiffs' motion for class certification involving claims of cybersquatting relating to domain names on the internet
• Winning summary judgment dismissing the claims against all named plaintiffs seeking to represent a putative class of home equity borrowers in Alameda County, California, against a consumer finance company
• Winning dismissal of the claims of a putative class action relating to accessing credit report information to advertise for loans
• Winning summary judgment dismissing all claims brought against UOP LLC by Archer Daniels Midland Company on UCC warranty theories
• Obtaining dismissal of a consumer class action against DaimlerChrysler in Cook County, Illinois
• Defending Lear Corporation in federal court jury trial over a $75 million contract claim by a supplier
• Obtaining summary judgment against plaintiffs in Jefferson County, Mississippi, on behalf of a consumer finance company in a “mass joinder” fraud action
• Obtaining dismissal by the court of a federal RICO count at the conclusion of a six-week criminal trial
• Representing Sears, Roebuck and Co. in several putative national consumer class action lawsuits and state attorney general investigations
• Representing Reader’s Digest in its successful Illinois appeal that reversed a trial court’s class certification decision
• Representing Interstate Brands in a 22-state product recall of Twinkies and other snack cakes due to allegations of improper asbestos removal from the bakery (including class actions and government investigations)
• Successfully representing Interstate Brands in a DOJ antitrust division contest over its acquisition of Continental Baking
• Defending Gateway, Inc. in a putative national class action of purchasers of a certain PC configuration, which concluded successfully when the trial court’s certification of a nationwide class was overridden by the Seventh Circuit’s direction that an arbitration clause had to be enforced and that a class arbitration was not permissible (Hill v. Gateway 2000, Inc., 105 F.3d 1147 (7th Cir. 1997))
• Serving as national coordinating counsel for a series of class actions involving consumer lending

Publications

• Why GCs Should Pursue Mediation First, Not as a Last Resort, Today's General Counsel (Nov. 12, 2024)

• Preparing to Prepare to Mediate, The Circuit Rider (May 2023)
• In New York, a Trust Beneficiary Has Powerful Rights, Law360 (Jan. 23, 2018) (with Justin Ellis)
• Virtual Round Table: Litigation & Dispute Resolution 2014, Corporate LiveWire (Feb. 2014)
• Opting Out of a Class Action: Timing Crucial for Plaintiff Companies, Corporate Counsel (Fall 2013) (with Lucas M. Walker)

News & Appearances

• Advanced Commercial Mediation Training, Facilitator, CLE presented by NYSBA, Spring and Fall 2023-2025
• The Rule of Law and the American Experiment, 7th Circuit Bar Foundation, full day CLE, October 2025
• Has Political Polarization Affected The Legitimacy of The Courts?, 7th Circuit Bar Foundation, full day CLE, September 2024
• Mediation: Advanced Techniques, Moderator, Presented at 7th Circuit Judicial Conference, August 2023
• A Symposium on the American Jury, 7th Circuit Bar Foundation, full day CLE, May 2023
• Ethics and Experts, CLE in Spring and Fall 2021
• The First Amendment in the Internet Age, 3-part CLE Series, Summer 2021
• Tips and Techniques for Conducting and Defending Rule 30(b)(6) Depositions, CLE in Spring 2020
• In-House Lawyer Communications: Ethical and Professional Considerations, CLE in Spring 2020
• Favorable ruling in Surrogate's Court for ML client trust beneficiary, April 2018
• Prominent litigator Tom Wiegand joins ML, The American Lawyer, February 16, 2011