Biography

Thomas M. Sims has spent much of his career at Baron & Budd litigating complex environmental cases ranging from water contamination to air pollution. Though he has recently expanded his practice to represent public entities in hotel occupancy tax cases and whistleblowers under the state and federal claims act, Sims continues to work on serious environmental cases such as the Gulf Coast Oil Spill. He currently serves on the American Association for Justice’s (AAJ) ad hoc committee on the BP Fund and the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF). Sims and his firm were recently hired to represent the State of Louisiana in its efforts to recover natural resource damages from BP as a result of the Gulf oil spill.

Sims is no stranger to Louisiana ecology. In 2009, he represented Hurricane Katrina victims in a five-week non-jury trial that resulted in a groundbreaking decision to hold the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers liable for its mismanagement of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MRGO) during Katrina and the catastrophic flooding it caused in New Orleans.

Working as lead counsel, Sims was a driving force in negotiating one of the largest California Proposition 65 cases in history where he represented three environmental organizations against school bus provider Laidlaw. In the settlement, Laidlaw agreed to invest more than $28 million to replace or retrofit school buses that were built before 2003 with air pollution control devices.

Sims served as trial counsel in the precedent-setting Tucson, Arizona groundwater contamination case where he represented more than 1,600 people who had been harmed due to trichloroethylene (TCE) contamination in the water. The case settled in 2005 in favor of Baron & Budd’s clients and, in 2006, Sims and other Baron & Budd attorneys received the “Trial Lawyer of the Year” award from the non-profit Trial Lawyers for Public Justice for their work on the case.

Sims earned a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, with honors in 1999 and a B.A. from New College in 1996.

Education

University of Texas School of Law (J.D., with honors, 1999)
New College (B.A. 1996)

Bar & Court Admissions

Texas
United States District Court for the Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western Districts of Texas

Awards

Trial Lawyer of the Year (Public Justice, 2006)
Rising Star of Texas Law (Texas Monthly, 2005)

Professional Associations

Public Justice Association

Reported Cases

Fullen v. Philips Elec. N. Am. Corp., 266 F.Supp.2d 471 (N.D.W. Va. 2002)

Hamilton v. Beretta U.S.A. Corp., 96 N.Y.2d 222, 750 N.E.2d 1055, 727 N.Y.S.2d 7 (2001)

Significant Trials

Smith, et al., v. Tucson Airport Authority, No. C-251422 (Super. Ct., Pima County, Ariz.)