Thomas O. Bean

Tom represents large and small businesses, and individuals, on a broad array of litigation and bankruptcy issues. Some cases concern contract disputes and some fraud or negligence, while others involve companies experiencing financial distress. For example, Tom has represented a Fortune 50 company for over a decade in bankruptcy litigation and in dealing with financially distressed suppliers. He also represents a small gasoline distributor in litigation with some of its dealers. Tom represents a major financial institution in cases brought by the Massachusetts Attorney General and others arising out of the mortgage banking crisis. He also serves as legal counsel to a national religious organization for which he provides advice on everything from bylaws, to litigation, to amicus briefs filed at the U.S. Supreme Court. Based on Tom’s experience and reputation, he was appointed in 2011 by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to investigate and prosecute wrongdoing by the clerk-magistrate of a District Court.

Prior to joining Verrill Dana, Tom practiced at the Boston office of an international law firm. He has also served as a Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General in the Government Bureau where he argued eighteen cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Tom has tried cases in the U.S. District Court, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, and the Massachusetts Superior Court.

Tom was appointed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to the Client Security Board in 2005; that Board hears claims brought by individuals who maintain their lawyers stolen money from them, and frequently makes awards of reimbursement. He served as co-chair of the Bankruptcy Section of the Boston Bar Association from 2001-2003. He is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, and lectures frequently on litigation and bankruptcy matters. Tom is an adjunct lecturer at Northeastern University School of Law where he teaches legal writing.

Tom is a teacher by training and at heart. He taught high school after graduating from college, and recently initiated the idea for, helped developed the curriculum for, and taught classes to middle school students on search and seizure in public schools, and free speech in public schools. This past fall, a middle-school Tom co-founded opened in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Tom chairs that school’s advisory board. He has also taught business law and negotiation at the graduate and undergraduate level.