Thomas Brandon, as lead counsel, and co-counsel, Robert Simon, represented 25 Life Settlement Funds who were defendants in an adversary action in federal court arising from the Life Partners bankruptcy case in Fort Worth.  This action was filed in January, 2017.  The Trustee (from the bankruptcy case) was seeking to recover several million dollars in commissions paid to the Life Settlement Funds (which were PPM funds which invested substantial amounts in life settlements).  After substantial discovery and motion practice, 23 of the funds favorably settled with the Trustee.  Two of the funds persevered and filed a motion for summary judgment on the remaining claim of Equitable Subordination.  The court granted summary judgment against the Trustee’s claims thereby successfully ending the case in June, 2018.

Thomas Brandon, as lead counsel, represented 40 individual defendants in a class action case arising out of the Life Partners bankruptcy in Fort Worth.  The Trustee filed a class action federal lawsuit in December, 2016 seeking to certify a class of defendants in order to recover dividends paid to all shareholders (more than 2,000) of Life Partners Holdings, Inc. (a public company) from 2008 until the bankruptcy was filed in January, 2015.  No other defense counsel was resisting the class certification efforts of the Trustee other than Mr. Brandon.  Opposing counsel had, in fact, recommended to the Court that Mr. Brandon serve as class counsel for the putative defendant class.  Due to several substantive issues raised by their defense about the ability of the Trustee to certify a class, the Trustee decided to dismiss the lawsuit and the parties entered a stipulation of dismissal which was filed April 29^th, 2020 without a settlement by the Defendants.

Thomas Brandon, as lead counsel, represented more than 280 individual clients who were defendants in 5 different federal lawsuits arising from the massive Life Partners bankruptcy case in Fort Worth.  (More than 700 individual defendants were sued in the 5 cases).  These different adversary actions were filed in Dec., 2015 and in March, 2016.  The Trustee (from the bankruptcy case) was seeking to recover more than $40 million in commissions paid to the defendant licensees who helped sell life settlements claiming that the commissions were fraudulent transfers.  The federal court granted Whitaker Chalk’s motion to dismiss (and similar motions filed by other defense counsel) and dismissed the Trustee’s action with prejudice in all 5 cases.  The Trustee then appealed to the 5^th circuit and the case was affirmed in part (meaning that the Trustee could not go forward on several of the asserted claims) and reversed in part (main claims remaining dealt with actual and constructive fraudulent transfer claims).  The cases were returned to the same federal court where they have proceeded towards trial.  Mr. Brandon and co-counsel, Robert Simon, have now successfully and favorably settled or had dismissed all of the clients represented and the actions have been dismissed as of May, 2021.