Thomas Alan Schmutz

Partner

Thomas A. Schmutz is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Litigation Practice. Mr. Schmutz's practice focuses on complex business litigation, including energy-related litigation before federal and state courts, and before domestic and international arbitral tribunals, as well as government contracts counseling and litigation. He has also been involved in administrative proceedings before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Department of Labor (DOL).

Mr. Schmutz has dealt extensively in class actions, including class actions involving the retail drug industry. This includes a number of class actions for Rite Aid Corporation involving counterfeit products, sales tax issues and prescription practices. He also has handled personal injury and breach of contract litigation for Rite Aid.

Mr. Schmutz has counseled large and small defense contractors and contractors with civilian agencies. He has litigated government contracts cases before the Court of Federal Claims, the federal district courts, GAO and boards of contract appeals. Flowing from his work for defense contractors, Mr. Schmutz has a significant background in international arbitration. He has handled two matters before the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal and four ICC arbitrations involving contracts for the maintenance and manufacture of equipment in Iran.

Mr. Schmutz has been extensively involved in a number of major energy-related litigations. These include litigation arising out of the Millstone outage and steam generator litigation involving the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant. He has also handled a variety of litigation matters, involving the licensing of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor before the NRC, the licensing proceedings for the Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station, the licensing proceedings for Braidwood and the restart proceedings for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. He has represented several utilities during the course of NRC investigations of alleged wrongdoing. He also has appeared before the NRC and the DOL on behalf of utility companies.

Mr. Schmutz has handled matters before the FERC that include a merger proceeding involving two California utilities. He also represented energy and government contract clients before federal, district and appellate courts in cases involving contract disputes, Freedom of Information Act appeals and subpoena. He has defended numerous utility clients in "whistleblower" cases before the DOL and in related proceedings before the NRC.

Mr. Schmutz is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.