J. Thomas Beckett Salt Lake City, Utah
| phone | 801-532-1234 |
| fax | 801-536-6111 |
| tbeckett@parsonsbehle.com | |
| vCard |  |
Tom Beckett is a shareholder in the Litigation department. He practices primarily in the area of commercial litigation, and he is head of the firm's Financial Solutions Group which includes bankruptcy, workouts and financial litigation. For the past several years, Tom has mainly represented Creditors Committees in the bankruptcies of high-end luxury resorts, including the Promontory Club in Park City, the Yellowstone Mountain Club in Big Sky, Montana and the Rhodes Ranch in Las Vegas.
Prior to joining Parsons Behle & Latimer, he was an associate in the bankruptcy/workout department of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in New York City. Tom is a frequent lecturer on bankruptcy issues. His work experience includes a year as a research assistant for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights. He has held a whitewater river guide's license for 35 years, and he is the president of the Brown University Club of Utah and a member of the Board of Directors of Clark Planetarium.
Professional Listings:- Best Lawyers in America (Bankruptcy / Creditors Rights)
- Best Lawyers' 2011 Lawyer of the Year, Salt Lake City (Bankruptcy/Creditor-Debtor Rights)
- Utah Business Magazine's Legal Elite (Bankruptcy / Creditors Rights)
- Southwestern Regional Superlawyer (Bankruptcy / Creditors Rights)
- AV rating, Martindale Hubbell
Representative Engagements:
- Counsel to Creditors Committee Yellowstone Mountain Club, Big Sky, Montana ($400m)
- Counsel to Creditors Committee Promontory Club, Park City, Utah ($400m)
- Counsel to Creditors Committee Rhodes Homes, Las Vegas, Nevada ($400m)
- Counsel to Creditors Committee Waterford Funding, Salt Lake City, Utah ($100m)
- Counsel to Creditors Committee Geneva Steel's first bankruptcy ($150m)
- Counsel to Creditors Committee Geneva Steel's second bankruptcy ($250m)
- Counsel to Creditors Committee Firstline Security, Inc. ($30m)
- Counsel to Creditors Committee Johns Manville ($50m)
- Counsel to National Consulting Firm invoking force majeure clause in contract with luxury hotel following 9/11 ($3m)
- Creditor Counsel defense of avoidance action ($5m)
- Claim Counsel to Sales and Marketing Department of Yellowstone Mountain Club ($8m)
- Creditor Counsel in re Simon Trucking ($50m)
- Bank Litigation Counsel secured lenders foreclosing on power plants ($800m)
- Bank Litigation Counsel secured lender foreclosing on three-tower real estate development ($100m)
- Victims' Counsel 250 German victims of securities fraud ($60m)
- Asset Purchaser's Counsel national gasoline retailer purchasing numerous retail sites from bankrupt regional
- Corporate / Restructuring counsel real estate development company with $425 million in debt on eight projects in four Western States
- Debtor's counsel bankruptcy of largest U.S. roller coaster manufacturer
- Debtor's counsel U.S. Lines, one of the world's largest sea shipping companies
- Trustee's counsel liquidation of formerly largest U.S. law firm, Finley Kumbel
- Areas of Practice:
- Bankruptcy Litigation
- Litigation & Appeals
- Banking & Finance Law
- Commercial Litigation
- Workouts & Restructuring
- Bar Admissions:
- New York, 1987
- U.S. District Court Southern District of New York
- U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York, 1987
- Utah, 1990
- U.S. District Court District of Utah, 1990
- U.S. Court of Appeals 10th Circuit, 2004
- Education:
- New York University School of Law, New York, New York,
1986
J.D. degree - New York University,
1986
M.B.A.
Major: Finance - Brown University,
1979
B.A. degree
Honors: Watson Fellow
- Classes/Seminars Taught:
- Panel Member, "2010 Real Estate Issues," ABI National Conference, Washington, D.C., March 31, 2011
- Panel Moderator, "Evidence Issues in Bankruptcy Cases," ABI Rocky Mountain Conference, Denver, CO, January 27, 2011
- Panel Member, "Challenging the Secured Lender," ABI's Leadership Conference, Scottsdale, AZ, December 9, 2010
- Panel Moderator, "Hot Topics and Recent Developments," American Bankruptcy Institute's Rocky Mountain Bankruptcy Conference, January 20-21, 2010
- "A Rogue Loan, Not a Rogue Decision: A Response to a Recent Analysis of Yellowstone." ABI Journal, 22 November 2009
- Keynote, "The Yellowstone Story," Urban Land Institute, Charleston, SC "Capital Confessions," September 15, 2009
- "The Absolute Priority Rule -- Not so Absolute," ABI Journal, 22 December 2009
- "Directors' Duties in the Zone of Insolvency," Utah Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors, February 20, 2008
- Panel Moderator, "Bankruptcy Settlements," American Bankruptcy Institute's Rocky Mountain Bankruptcy Conference, attended by Western regional bankruptcy practitioners and judges, February 14 & 15, 2008
- "Business Valuation in Bankruptcy: Tools & Techniques," Association Of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors, February 21-24, 2004
