Thad Behrens

Practice Areas

Thad Behrens is a partner in the firm’s Litigation practice. His practice focuses on the representation of companies, boards of directors, executives or underwriters in high-stakes commercial disputes, including securities actions, shareholder derivative cases, M&A litigation, tender offer litigation, proxy contest lawsuits and internal investigations. He also has extensive experience in defending class actions involving consumer protection, environmental issues, healthcare and telecommunications.

He has obtained major victories for some of the most recognizable companies in the U.S. For example, Thad recently obtained dismissals for two matters on behalf of Tenet Healthcare, a securities case and the other a medical care case. He also won a putative environmental class action lawsuit for AT&T by first obtaining denial of class certification and then securing voluntary dismissal of the lawsuit. Thad led the successful defense of the National Football League (NFL) in a consumer class action brought by ticketholders to Super Bowl XLV—first obtaining a denial of class certification and then winning the subsequent federal jury trial against the remaining individual plaintiffs. He also obtained summary judgment for the NFL in two different lawsuits brought in Texas state courts by a fantasy football convention company. Thad has also led BP Products North America, Inc. to victory by defeating class certification and securing a voluntary dismissal in a $10 billion environmental litigation brought by property owners who claimed to have been harmed by alleged air emissions from one of the company’s oil refineries.

Prior to entering private practice, Thad served as a law clerk for the Honorable Garland E. Burrell, Jr. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.

Thad is also a recognized leader in the community. He is a Master of the Bench in the esteemed Patrick E. Higginbotham Inn of Court, a former president of the Dallas Federal Bar Association and an alumnus of the Dallas Regional Chamber’s famed Leadership Dallas program.

Career

https://www.shearman.com/en/people/b/behrens-thad

Personal

McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific: J.D., with great distinction; Bucknell University: B.A.

Admissions: California; Texas