© 2016 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
(Oct. 24) – Porter Hedges recently announced that Houston trial lawyer Tom Bayko has joined the firm.
“Porter Hedges works with their clients through the tough times, and after joining I was able to drop my hourly rate to become competitive with the other great trial lawyers in Houston,” he said.
“The second reason I chose Porter Hedges is that I attract a lot of very sophisticated deal work. In the past, I had to give that work away to other firms which are full-service firms.”
Bayko, who has tried cases or arbitrations under the applicable laws of 34 countries around the world, is currently defending the Government of Antigua and Barbuda in three class-actions filed against it over its alleged involvement in the $8 billion Stanford Ponzi scheme.
Two of the class actions were appealed and argued to the Fifth Circuit in June, and the other one is still pending in federal district court in Dallas. Originally, there were four class actions filed against Bayko’s client, but he and his team have already won one of them.
“I have handled several cases for and against sovereigns and their state-owned enterprises, but the case against the Government of Antigua and Barbuda is the most interesting case of this type that I have had so far because the legal issues are very complicated,” he said.
Bayko is also representing Apache Corporation and several of its subsidiaries against Pioneer Natural Resources in a dispute related to Apache’s purchase of Pioneer’s oil and gas operations in Argentina. The trial was scheduled for September, but it got pushed back to 2017.
The financial institution industry, like the energy sector, is facing hard times, Bayko says. He expects an uptick in litigation regarding financial products.
“Very few people have a true appreciation for how bad the U.S., the European and the Asian economies are,” he said. “Trial and arbitration lawyers with specialized knowledge in derivatives, futures, non-deliverable forward contracts and the like are going to be very busy very soon.”
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