Thomas J. Placido Partner

Thomas (Tom) Placido is an attorney with Sacro & Walker LLP practicing general commercial litigation and insurance coverage litigation in state and federal courts. His commercial litigation practice involves defending businesses and individuals in lawsuits arising out of contracts, torts, and unfair competition claims. He also represents insurers in first- and third-party insurance coverage and bad faith litigation. Mr. Placido is admitted to practice before all California state courts, the United States District Court for the Central, Northern, Southern, and Eastern Districts of California, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Representative Matters

• Obtained summary judgment on insurer’s rescission of insurance policies due to insured’s misrepresentation of material information in insurance applications, including reimbursement of insurer’s defense fees and costs in underlying litigation.
• Obtained partial summary judgment on negligence claim and was part of trial team that later obtained complete defense verdict after jury trial of customer fraud and conversion claims against Fortune 500 company.
• Provided coverage advice for insurers during underlying jury trials of catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death claims.
• Represented insurers in first-party property bad faith litigation following special investigative unit investigations for suspected insurance fraud.
• Represented life insurers in disputes with claimants regarding disposition of policy benefits.
• Obtained favorable settlement for publicly traded technology company in contract dispute with software and IT consulting company.

Education

Mr. Placido earned his Juris Doctor from Columbia University, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He received a Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Southern California, where he graduated magna cum laude.