Thomas P. Friedman began his legal career in 1999 as a litigation associate in the Los Angele office of Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom LLP. From 2001 until 2005, he continued his commercial litigation practice in the Stamford, Connecticut office of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP. He joined the offices of Valle Makoff in 2007.

Mr. Friedman’s practice focuses on complex commercial and business litigation. He also has experience in class actions, securities, and insurance law, as well as alternative dispute resolution methods. Over the course of his career, he has been involved in matters such as:

	Obtaining favorable settlements on behalf of Guess ?, Inc. and Oakley, Inc. in high-stakes class action lawsuits;
	Securing in excess of twenty million dollars for an affiliate of General Electric Company based on a commercial credit and political risk insurance policy issued by an international insurance company;
	Obtaining summary judgment for a client in a complex contract dispute against former partners in a multi-phase gaming project;
	Representing Merrill Lynch Credit Corporation in an unfair trade practices action arising out of challenges to its underwriting and securitization of home loans.

Mr. Friedman earned his law degree in 1999 from the University of California at Los Angeles (“UCLA”). He received his Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Tufts University in Boston in 1995. He also studied a year abroad at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

During his law studies, Mr. Friedman completed a summer internship for the Hon. Harry L. Hupp, U.S. District Court, Central District of California. He also externed full-time for a semester in the Employment Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C..