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OFFICE
Mesa
Jackson
PRACTICE FOCUS
Business Litigation
Trade Secret and IP Litigation
Fraud
Securities Litigation
Restrictive Covenants

Richard R. Thomas

SHAREHOLDER

Mr. Thomas is a shareholder at Smith LC, and manages the firm’s Arizona office. Mr. Thomas’s practice focuses on business litigation, with a special emphasis on trade secret and other intellectual property litigation.

Mr. Thomas graduated from Brigham Young University in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. He received his law degree, cum laude, from Washington & Lee University Law School in 1983. At Washington & Lee, Mr. Thomas was the captain of the National Moot Court team and received the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence.

Throughout his career, Mr. Thomas has successfully protected and vindicated the rights of small-to-medium-sized business owners in a wide variety of business disputes, often against larger competitors. Mr. Thomas’s accomplishments include serving as lead counsel in the following:

  • Claims for more than 70 plaintiffs in a large investment fraud case against the professionals of the former Mortgages Limited in Arizona, resulting in settlements of more than $20,000,000.
  • Representation of a bankruptcy trustee in a large bank failure in the Midwest in a case against officers, directors, and the bank’s outside auditor, resulting in a seven figure settlement.
  • Trade secret and unfair competition claims against a world-wide consumer products company on behalf of a small biotech company in an emerging technology, with alleged damages of more than $1 billion.
  • Copyright infringement/trade secret misappropriation case on behalf of the largest CFO business in the country, resulting in a favorable settlement.
  • Substantial verdict for a successful pain physician against a major metropolitan hospital for wrongfully interfering with the doctor’s medical practice.
  • Multimillion dollar settlement against a major Wall Street investment firm for trade secret misappropriation.
  • Defense verdict for a small business owner in a multimillion-dollar claim brought by a disgruntled minority shareholder of a dissolved corporation.
  • Successfully defeated the efforts of a national company to enforce an unreasonable restrictive covenant not to compete against an entrepreneur with a growing competing business.

Through these and other successes throughout his career, Mr. Thomas has demonstrated a commitment to his personal slogan: “Clients want solutions, not more problems.”

Education
  • 1980 BA English, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
  • 1983 JD cum laude, Washington & Lee University Law School
Bar Admissions
  • State Bar of Arizona
  • State Bar of Georgia
  • State Bar of Wyoming
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
Professional Affiliations and Activities
  • Arizona State Bar Association
  • Arizona Trial Lawyers Association
Awards and Recognition
  • Rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell
Languages
  • Portuguese
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Irvine, California

4 Park Plaza Suite 1050 | Irvine, CA 92614
949-416-5000

Lehi, Utah

2912 Executive Parkway, Suite 240 | Lehi, Utah 84043
385-309-0000

Mesa, Arizona

40 N Center Street Suite 104 | Mesa, Arizona 85201
949-416-5000

Jackson, Wyoming

15 South Jackson Street | Jackson, Wyoming 83001
307-201-6000

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