Thomas Hetherington is a trial partner in the firm’s Houston office. His practice focuses on commercial litigation, including securities fraud, shareholder litigation, corporate merger litigation, energy-related litigation, financial services litigation, life, health and disability insurance litigation, ERISA litigation, construction litigation, real estate litigation, business tort litigation and complex commercial disputes. Mr. Hetherington has extensive experience litigating complex commercial cases, tort cases and class actions.

Mr. Hetherington has extensive experience in state courts, federal courts and before arbitration panels. He is admitted to practice in the State of Texas, the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States District Court for the Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of Texas. He has represented his clients in state and federal courts in Texas, Oregon, Colorado, New Jersey, California, Oklahoma, Delaware, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Kansas, New York, Hawaii, Illinois and other states. Mr. Hetherington maintains a national litigation practice, defending his clients all over the country. Mr. Hetherington has trial experience in a wide variety of cases, including multi-million commercial litigation matters.

Mr. Hetherington was a partner at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP before leaving in January 2009 to form Edison, McDowell & Hetherington LLP.

Representative Matters
Enron Litigation: representation of Enron’s General Counsel in various cases stemming from the collapse of Enron Corporation. Mr. Hetherington was instrumental in obtaining one of the few dismissals in the Enron securities litigation for his client, and represented his client in Enron related proceedings in Texas, New York and in connection with the investigation by the Enron bankruptcy examiner.

Kinder Morgan Buy Out Litigation: Represented Kinder Morgan Inc. and its Independent Directors in class action shareholder lawsuits pending in state court in Kansas and in state and federal court Texas relating to Kinder Morgan’s multi-billion dollar going private transaction.

Represented W-H Energy Services, Inc. and its Board of Directors in connection with class action shareholder litigation filed to enjoin the acquisition of W-H by Smith International, Inc.

Represented Cornell Companies, Inc. and its Board of Directors in connection with shareholder class action litigation relating to a proposed buyout transaction.

Represented American General Life Insurance Company and its various affiliates in hundreds of complex insurance and financial services cases all over the country.

Represented WellPoint, Inc. and various of its subsidiary companies in numerous first party health insurance litigation matters in Texas and around the country.

Represented Assurant Health and various of its affiliated companies in numerous first party health insurance litigation matters in Texas.

Represented The Phoenix Companies in connection with a wide variety of speculator initiated life insurance litigation matters around the country.

Notable Trials

• Cause No. 654,877; Johnson v. Metropolitan Transit Authority; in the County Court at Law # 3, Harris County, Texas. Successfully tried to conclusion and obtained no liability verdict for Metro.
• Cause No. 97-51222; Aluminum Chemicals (Bolivia) Inc. v. Bechtel Corporation and Xytel-Bechtel Inc.; in the 129th District Court of Harris County, Texas. Successfully tried to conclusion and obtained no liability verdict for Bechtel Corporation in multi-million dollar business tort case.
• Cause No. 99-36444; MTM Electrical Corporation v. Bechtel International, Inc., Bechtel Corporation and Texmarc Conveyor Company; in the 80th Judicial District Court of Harris County, Texas. Successfully tried to conclusion and obtained no liability verdict for Bechtel Corporation in complex construction litigation case.
• No. 70 198 00118 96; American Arbitration Association, Houston, Texas; In the Matter of the Arbitration Among Teco Pipeline Company, Individually and on behalf of TransTexas Pipeline Partnership vs. Valero Energy Corporation, et al. Arbitrated complex pipeline litigation for many months and obtained favorable result for Valero.
• Arbitration styled Claudio Herrera and Fernando Morales-O’Horan v. Service Corporation International, MFS Acquisition Corporation, and SCI Texas Funeral Services Inc. Arbitrated contract dispute for world’s largest funeral home company and obtained favorable result.
• Cause No. 2002-57016-A; Aeternia Enterprises U.S.A., Ltd. v. Magnitogorsk Steel and Wire Works, and PrimeSource Building Products, Inc.; In the 133rd Judicial District Court of Harris County, Texas. Successfully tried to conclusion and obtained no liability verdict for Primesource Building Products in complex commercial dispute.

Publications and Speeches

• SPIN Life: Hedging Insurable Interest, Co-written with D. McDowell and J. Ganer, Eastern Claims Conference, February 2007 & 2008 and ACLI Annual Conference, October 2007
• Hot Topics in Life Claims, Western Claims Conference, June 2006
• “Confusing Conflicts: National Medical Enters. Inc. v. Godbey and The Problem Of Disqualification When No Previous Attorney-Client Relationship Exists,” 34 Hous. L. Rev. 909, 1997

Education
J.D., summa cum laude, University of Houston Law Center, 1998
B.A., Rice University, 1995

Bar Admissions
Texas

Court Admissions
U.S. District Court for the Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of Texas
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit

Affiliations
Houston Bar Association
Texas Bar Foundation Fellow

Noteworthy
Texas Rising Star, Business Litigation, 2004-2006, 2008