A native Californian, Mr. Hughes graduated from Loyola University of Los Angeles, with the highest academic average for his class and received the Ignatian Award as the senior most distinguished in leadership and service to the University and student body.
As in-house counsel and a senior corporate officer for Caesars World, Inc. and its subsidiaries and Heitman Properties Ltd. and Heitman Advisory Corporation, Mr. Hughes has negotiated and consummated at least 2500 real estate transactions. He also provided general corporate counsel in the areas of securities law compliance, public offerings, entertainment contracts, institutional financing and administrative law issues in the heavily regulated casino gaming industry.
Timothy Hughes' areas of practice with the firm during the last 20 years include business, commercial, real estate and construction transactional law and litigation. Mr. Hughes' litigation experience includes complex civil trial and appellate practice in a broad range of cases proceeding to verdict or judgment. He has served as lead counsel in several multi-party, multi-jurisdictional and multi-million dollar cases involving construction defects; private and public works contract disputes; alleged fraud in foreign currency option trading actions; false comparative advertising claims, wrongful death and catastrophic injury actions; landslide and earth movement cases; corporate and partnership dissolution and fraud actions; commercial real estate disputes; aviation accident and international commercial disputes. Since 2002, practice areas have expanded to litigation and transactional matters involving international law (France, Mexico, Japan, Korea and Germany).
Since 2008, Mr. Hughes has been the lead defense counsel in the coordinated California state court cases involving state and federal statutory and common law fraud claims arising out of the failed Trump Ocean Resort Baja Project. The cases are still pending in the Los Angeles Superior Court's complex litigation division and involve claims seeking compensatory damages and restitution aggregating nearly $24,000,000 plus interest, attorneys' fees and punitive damages.
In addition and since 2008, Mr. Hughes has supported Columbia Helicopters, Inc.'s general counsel with strategic oversight of the defense of Columbia in the Multidistrict Litigation "In re Helicopter Crash Near Weaverville, California 8/5/08" that is pending before the United States District Court for the District of Oregon. The helicopter accident resulted in the deaths of 9 persons and injuries to 4 survivors. Mr. Hughes has also served as lead counsel in the prosecution of related indemnity and defense contractual actions and coverage disputes.
Notable Achievements
During the last 13 years, Mr. Hughes' more notable achievements in litigation matters include the following:
- Settlement in the amount of $2.4 million of fraud and breach of fiduciary duty claims in a partnership dispute made against his defendant clients. Plaintiff claimed more than $6 million dollars in compensatory damages plus punitive damages and attorneys' fees. Settlement was structured in such a manner that $1.5 million dollars of the total $2.4 million settlement is payable over a seven year period with a very low interest burden. (2010, California).
- Obtaining a pre-trial, client favorable resolution of a partnership, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty action that involved claims and cross-claims of 16 parties plaintiff and defendant, multiple real estate ventures, and properties valued at nearly $400 million dollars, following two years of litigation. The resolution entitled our firm's client to receive more than $8.8 million and absolved our client from all liability for all claims by all other parties. Fees for the primary adverse party, represented by three successive firms, the last being Bryan Cave, exceeded $2,000,000 in contrast to slightly more than $536,000 in fees charged to our client. (2008, California).
- Achieving a mediated, pre-litigation settlement of an $80,000,000 wrongful termination claim against our firm's clients in consideration for a payment of $423,000. (2007, California).
- Achieving a defense favorable settlement that was valued at significantly less than $1,000,000 net present value and which compromised adverse plaintiff's claims that sought more than $59,000,000 in compensatory damages plus punitive damages as a multiple thereof, in a complex partnership/real estate transaction dispute. During the course of mediating and approving the settlement, the trial judge stated that the adverse party/plaintiff's legal fees and costs exceeded the net present value of the settlement amount payable by our firm's clients by multiple of 5 to 6 times. Settlement was achieved after 7 weeks in trial, in which the defense was led by Mr. Hughes against one of the nation's premier and larger litigation firms. In contrast to the more than $3.5 million in fees and costs paid by the adverse parties, our firm's clients were charged approximately $805,000 in fees and costs. (2006, California).
- Achieving defense favorable mediated settlement in class action wage & hour dispute valued at less than $500,000, compromising more than $2.9 million in alleged damages. (2005, California).
- Damage control and defense of $29,000,000 claim, resulting in reduced verdict of $16,640,000 against client in international contract dispute between two airlines. (2003, U.S.D.C - Ore).
- Successful defense and obtaining judgment denying entirety of $47,000,000 claim in federal court action involving acquisition of major Korean telecommunications company. (2002, U.S.D.C - N.D. Cal.).
- Obtaining $38,300,000 plaintiff's verdict for compensatory and punitive damages in a partnership, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty action, following a 2 and ½ month jury trial. Subsequent trial of equitable claims resulted in the imposition of constructive trust over more than $1 billion dollars of real estate assets and the imposition of monthly accounting duties upon the defendants. The firm's fees, charged on an hourly basis for this business litigation matter, were less than $700,000 in achieving this result. (2001, 9th largest verdict in California that year).
- Achieving a plaintiff's settlement in the amount of $14,000,000 following the three month jury trial of products liability action that was tried with Mr. Hughes' partner Paul Fine acting as lead counsel. The case involved wrongful death claims for the families of three decedents and catastrophic injuries to survivors. At the close of the liability phase of the trial lead by Mr. Fine, plaintiffs received a unanimous verdict in their favor on all questions presented to the jury. In support of Mr. Fine and throughout trial, Mr. Hughes argued all significant legal and evidentiary issues. During the nearly month long damage phase of trial, Mr. Hughes conducted the direct examination of the plaintiff party witnesses and the direct and cross-examination of economist experts for all sides. (1999, California).
- Achieving settlement of U.S. Justice Department claims and monetary claims of more than 300 persons which involved alleged fraud in foreign currency option trading practice by the firm's clients. The primary action was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, with ancillary civil proceedings, an asset seizure action and criminal actions in California, Idaho, Texas and Ohio. Mr. Hughes became lead counsel, coordinating the efforts of five law firms and acting as the principal negotiator for the defendants of a global settlement which required the approval of every U.S. Attorney's office in the United States. (1998, Ohio).
- Obtaining a defense verdict (following a 5 week jury trial that was tried with Paul Fine) in a landslide case where three groups of plaintiffs sought more than $4,000,000 in damages. This case involved complex geotechnical issues complicated by an extensive Coastal Commission regulatory scheme. (1998, California).
