BIO
Tom Robins has been a member of Frandzel Robins Bloom & Csato, L.C. since its inception in 1979.
Tom is the firm's chief supervising trial attorney and personally tries most of the major jury and nonjury civil litigation cases in state and federal court for the firm's clients. Tom, as lead counsel, has personally tried numerous jury cases and court trials.
Tom's main emphasis is representing institutional lenders in large commercial lending and guaranty cases and in defense of financial institution liability suits (including claims arising out of making or failing to make or renew loans, claims involving undue lender control, fraudulent lending practices, failure to timely fund construction loans, sham guaranty, RICO, class action claims, claims arising out of interactions between bank and customer, and operations-related claims including letters of credit, bills of exchange, wire transfers, ACH, EFT, wrongful set-off, safe deposit box loss claims, and claims arising out of customer employee embezzlement schemes sought to be charged to the bank. Tom also represents financial institutions in fidelity bond, E&O insurance and D&O, Entity Liability insurance claims.
PRACTICE AREAS
Creditors Rights & Commercial Litigation
Business Litigation
EDUCATION
University of California at Los Angeles, B.A.
University of Southern California, J.D.
ADMISSIONS
State Bar of California
US Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit
US District Court, Central District of California
US District Court, Northern District of California
US District Court, Southern District of California
US District Court, Eastern District of California
MEMBERSHIPS & ASSOCIATIONS
Los Angeles County Bar Association
American Bar Association
American Board of Trial Advocates (associate member)
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
Lead counsel in Bank of America v. Giant Inland Empire R.V. Center, Inc., 78 Cal. App. 4th 1267 (2000) (tax sale of real estate collateral avoided for failure of county to comply with statutory and due process requirements)
Chatsky and Associates v. Superior Court, 117 Cal. App. 4th 873 (2004) (statute of limitations applicable to claims by depositors against their bank for payment of forged checks)
Williams v. Nidek, Inc., 2009 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 899 (Cal. App. February 2, 2009) (class certification properly denied in suit against medical device manufacturer)
Perez v. Nidek, Inc., 711 F. 3d 1109 (9th Cir. 2013) (affirming dismissal of class action complaint filed against medical device manufacturer)
Bank of America v. Sprecher, March 2010 (successfully represented Bank in an arbitration to enforce guaranties of the obligations of an automobile dealership line of credit, defeating defenses of fraud, breach of loan agreement and "Sumitomo" defense)
SCC Acquisitions, Inc. v. Central Pacific Bank, Orange County Superior Court, June and December 2010 (successfully defended Bank in two jury trials, the first involving a "sham guaranty" defense to liability under a guaranty and the second involving a $9 million damage claim alleging a fraudulent promise to extend the loan in question, affirmed 207 Cal. App. 4th 859 (2012) (jury property instructed term sheet for proposed loan extension could not itself be the basis of a fraud claim and that statements in loan file that borrower should be informed several months in advance of maturity if bank decided not to renew loan did not, themselves, create a duty to disclose)
