Tom Kidera helps navigate companies through crisis. Whether handling sensitive investigations or litigating billion-dollar cases, Tom brings a creative approach and dogged dedication to his clients and their needs. As a partner in the firm's Complex Litigation and Dispute Resolution group, Tom represents auditing firms, financial institutions, and the Firm's infrastructure clients in complex commercial litigation and regulatory enforcement proceedings.
He is particularly knowledgeable about issues of force majeure and catastrophic market disruption, having served on a team of Orrick lawyers whose force majeure-related victory on behalf of long-time client, Hemlock Semiconductor LLC, was declared a Top 10 Business Case of 2010-2019 by the Michigan Bar Journal.
Tom represents audit firms and accountants in regulatory proceedings commenced by the SEC and the PCAOB as well as civil litigations. He has experience managing and conducting large scale internal investigations, liaising with regulators, remediating problems, and managing risk and liability in delicate circumstances.
Tom also has litigated structured finance issues for his entire career, representing securitization sponsors and mortgage loan servicers in an array of litigations from securities fraud and loan repurchase disputes to ERISA and consumer class actions, also consulting and advising on the interpretation of securitization documents and events of default.
In addition, Tom advises the Firm's energy and infrastructure clients on litigation matters, previously having served as a member of the Orrick team representing Hemlock Semiconductor (a leading producer of solar-grade polycrystalline silicon) in commercial proceedings throughout the U.S. and around the globe.
Tom maintains an active pro bono practice representing asylum seekers and U.S. veterans seeking discharge status upgrades. Tom is also active in firm recruiting and retention efforts, serving on the hiring and summer program committees in New York, as well as the Professional Development Committee. He was a summer associate in the firm’s New York office in 2009.
A D.C. Circuit panel unanimously ruled that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB”) acted unlawfully by denying former Ernst & Young partner Marc Laccetti his right to bring an accounting expert to an investigative interview. The March 23rd decision in Laccetti v. Securities & Exchange Commission potentially throws the validity of many pending PCAOB investigations into question and provides important procedural rights to the subjects of those investigations.
Laccetti was investigated and sanctioned by the PCAOB in connection with Ernst & Young’s audit of Taro Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd.’s 2004 financial statements. The PCAOB’s rules provide witnesses interviewed by the PCAOB the right to be represented by counsel. However, the PCAOB had interpreted that rule as limited to lawyers only. Accordingly, when Laccetti was interviewed during the PCAOB’s investigation, the PCAOB permitted Lacetti to be accompanied by an in-house Ernst & Young lawyer but refused his request that an Ernst & Young accounting expert also be present. The PCAOB advised Laccetti that he and his counsel could consult with an expert before or after testifying, but that the presence of any technical expert was “not appropriate” at the interview. Following that interview, in a decision subsequently affirmed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), the PCAOB fined Laccetti $85,000 and suspended him from the accounting profession for two years. READ MORE →
