Thomas P. Manning

Thomas P. Manning handles complex business disputes in federal and state trial and appellate courts both locally and throughout the country, including contract disputes, business torts and RICO. He has experience in the defense of securities fraud class actions and antitrust class actions, including multi-district class actions.

Thomas has also represented corporate directors and officers in derivative actions alleging breach of fiduciary duties. He began his legal career as a law clerk for the Honorable Anita B. Brody of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Thomas’s recent engagements include:

• Obtaining a complete trial victory for client Cook Composites and Polymers in a five-week federal jury trial stemming from a $405 million lawsuit filed by Viking Yacht Company and Post Marine.
• Successfully petitioning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to take two  discretionary appeals from orders granting class certification in two different Sherman Act §1 cases, and then briefing both appeals on the merits, which resulted in the decertification of the classes and the clarification of the standards for granting class certification in the Third Circuit.
• Preserving on appeal a judgment in favor of our client, a national franchisor, in a breach of contract action following the termination of a lease.
• Obtaining dismissal of a derivative lawsuit filed against the directors and officers of a pharmaceutical wholesaler.
• Obtaining the dismissal of an antitrust “group boycott” lawsuit brought against a pharmaceutical distributor in federal court in New York.
• Having the Pennsylvania Supreme Court grant a petition for allowance of appeal on the issue of whether a party that produces documents in response to a federal court subpoena is protected by absolute immunity from a subsequent state court action for defamation based upon the contents of those documents.

Education:

• University of Pennsylvania Law School, J.D., 1998, cum laude
• University of Pennsylvania, M.G.A., 1996
• Dartmouth College, A.B., 1989, magna cum laude