The Firm's Attorneys:

Thomas C. Moore, Esq.

First and foremost, Tom Moore is a trial lawyer.  He has more than thirty years of experience in litigation before state and federal juries, judges and arbitration panels around the country.

His record includes trial victories for such entities as The New York Times and Marubeni Corporation, as well as on behalf of individuals and smaller business entities.  He also has represented Boards, companies and individuals in numerous federal and state investigations, including before the SEC, state Attorneys General, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice and several U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, with great success.

Tom is trusted not only by his clients, but by his peers.  As a Director of Doar, Inc., the nation’s preeminent litigation support firm, he is frequently retained to provide jury selection and trial strategy advice to other trial attorneys.  The state Appellate Court also has appointed him a Referee in serious attorney disciplinary matters, as well as naming him, for over a decade, to its Character and Fitness Committee.

Tom earned his BA with Highest Honors from University of California, Davis, and his law degree and a master’s in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall).  After clerking in federal district court, he joined the Manhattan D.A.’s Office, to forward his goal of becoming an accomplished trial attorney.  After only a few years there, he was the first person in his Bureau ever to be promoted to Senior Counsel.

Tom next joined the prestigious Proskauer law firm, where he was a lead attorney on a highly varied array of complex commercial cases and internal investigations.  Proskauer elevated him to partner after only six years, when few partners were made at all in Litigation, and none in fewer than eight years.  In addition, when Tom joined the firm, there was a publicly stated policy of only advancing “home grown” associates to partner, and not “lateral” associates, as was he.  

Eventually, Tom decided to fulfill a long-held goal of opening his own practice, which allows him greater flexibility in the cases he chooses to take and the billing arrangements he enters into. Initially, he set up shop as Of Counsel to one of his mentors, noted defense attorney Jeffrey Hoffman.  When Jeff decided to take his practice to a major law firm, Tom became the Head of Underwriting at Juridica Asset Management, where he lead the review of dozens of major business-to-business lawsuits to determine whether to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in such cases on behalf of that hedge fund’s clients.  

After a year with Juridica, Tom missed the actual practice of law and returned to New York to open his own firm.  He continues as a Director of Doar, as well.  In his more than 30 years of litigation experience, Tom has handled an astonishingly broad array of cases, as illustrated by the descriptions in the “Breadth of Experience” tab. Click any of the topics listed there -- for example, "contract disputes" -- for some specific examples of the matters he has handled.

In part because Tom is a decade-long member of the Court’s Character and Fitness Committee, and a Court-appointed Referee in Attorney Disciplinary Hearings, he is often retained in matters of alleged attorney malfeasance, including malpractice, criminal violations and other misconduct by attorneys.

Tom also has been a guest lecturer in attorney Continuing Legal Education courses.  These are described in the “Lecturer/Author” tab.

Tom will fight assiduously for your rights.  He has the experience and toughness your matter requires, and will deliver efficient and responsive service as he works to achieve the best results possible for you.

 Susan Hawkins

Susan D. Hawkins is Of Counsel to the firm.  Susan earned her BA (with distinction) from Yale University and graduated magna cum laude from Fordham (in the top 2% of her class).  She was Senior Articles Editor for the Fordham Law Review.  After a federal district court clerkship for USDJ Denny Chin, in the Southern District of New York, Susan worked as a labor law associate at Simpson Thacher.  Judge Chin then asked her to return as his law clerk for a second term, following which she became a litigation and employment associate at Kramer Levin, working on a wide  array of significant civil cases.  She then served for more than four years as a Principal Court Attorney at the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department.  In that role, she reviewed the briefs and record in hundreds of cases, to prepare the Bench for oral argument and draft opinions. Susan brings superior research, writing and analytical skills to the firm.