Thaddeus J. Stauber
Partner

Practice Areas

Experience

Thaddeus J. Stauber is a partner in Nixon Peabody LLP’s Commercial Litigation and International Arbitration groups and is head of the firm’s Art and Cultural Institutions team. In court room trials and proceedings involving commercial matters, federal contracts, real estate, intellectual property and privacy rights, personal reputations, contractual disputes, contested estates, wrongful death claims, insurance coverage and priceless art masterpieces, Thad has successfully represented his clients’ interests, including winning cases in state and federal courts around the country and other arbitral bodies. In just the last several years, he has argued and won highly contested cases in state and federal courts ranging from California to Ohio to Louisiana to New York.

Thad began his career as a criminal defense and civil trial attorney. He has presented, cross examined, and deposed witnesses from all walks of life, including high ranking governmental and foreign officials, company presidents and CFOs, boards of directors and trustees, attorneys, valuation and accounting experts, entertainment industry players, widows, death row and state penitentiary inmates, police officers, victims of major crimes, juveniles, Holocaust survivors, art curators and historians, professors, and students.

His clients include the world’s leading cultural institutions, foreign sovereigns, public agencies, international art collectors and dealers, private equity investors, commercial real estate entities, entertainment related companies, private companies, and individuals. His litigation and court room skills, judgment, and negotiation abilities have won his clients tens of millions of dollars, saved hundreds of jobs, kept innocent men and women out of prison, and protected company and personal reputations and assets.

In addition to his litigation work, Thad represents museums, major collectors, and dealers in significant transactions, including recently serving as deal counsel on the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Fisher Family agreement. The SFMOMA-Fisher Agreement brought the world renowned Fisher Collection to SFMOMA and includes a complex development agreement put together by Thad as the road map for SFMOMA’s expansion over the next five years.

As a former general counsel and advisor to the firm’s Public Finance group, Thad has been an integral team member helping our team assist clients in nearly $1 billion in public financings for major museum projects across the country.

Examples of his recent courtroom work and victories:

Commercial & Public Agency Reported Cases

• HACLA v. HUD: Housing Authority for the City of Los Angeles’ special litigation counsel against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development obtaining a federal court injunction over the objection of the U.S. Department of Justice stopping HUD from terminating HACLA’s $284 million annual federal contract. Deposed high ranking federal agency official in Washington, D.C and successfully negotiated HUD’s award of the contract back to HACLA on the eve of further federal court proceedings. The win for HACLA saved over 200 full-time jobs in Los Angeles and netting HACLA millions of dollars in revenue that is utilized to support vital social and community services to the residents of Los Angeles’ public and affordable housing community.

• In re Strobeck Real Estate: Trial counsel in million-dollar breach of contract and bankruptcy claim upheld on appeal in the Sixth Circuit. Established case precedent on valuation methodology of long-term commercial leases in national retail chain bankruptcy.

• School of the Art Institute of Chicago v. Art Institutes International: Plaintiff’s lead counsel in successful federal common law trade name infringement case in 7th Circuit district court against international trade school.

• In re Stern Estate: Plaintiff’s trial counsel winning multimillion-dollar trial verdict overturning estate for undue influence.

• In Estate of Friend: Plaintiff’s lead counsel obtaining eight-figure cash settlement for Chicago’s premier civic and cultural institutions over estate trustee’s objection on eve of trial.

• Sarah Blodgett Dunbar v. Dr. Seger-Thomschitz: Lead counsel for plaintiff on the international provenance investigation and prosecution of a successful federal court action affirming his client’s rightful ownership of an important and seminal German Expressionist painting by Oskar Kokoschka entitled Portrait of a Youth (Hans Reichel) (1910). Lead counsel on 5th Circuit Court of Appeal oral argument conducted on June 9, 2010, in New Orleans opposing claimant defendant’s effort to have of the Terezin Declaration displace Louisiana law based on a federal preemption argument.

• DIA & TMA v. Nathan: Plaintiffs’ counsel leading the international provenance investigation and victory for the Detroit Institute of Arts and Toledo Museum of Art in companion federal court cases brought in the Sixth Circuit establishing the museums’ rightful ownership to priceless van Gogh and Gauguin paintings over that of U.S. and foreign claimants. These were the first U.S. museums to file and win declaratory actions in federal court lawsuits arising from post–World War II Holocaust-related art restitution claims.

• Cassirer v. the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation and the Kingdom of Spain: Lead counsel to the world renowned Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation in a 9th Circuit Court filed art restitution claim currently pending before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on an issue of first impression involving the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act of 1976. Lead counsel on rare en banc oral argument conducted on March 24, 2010, before eleven judge panel.

• Fourcaud v. LACMA: Led successful defense and dismissal of adverse ownership claims to world famous Pushkin Museum French Impressionist paintings while on exhibition in the U.S. from Russia. Claims arose from Russian Revolution and nationalization of famous art collections by Stalin and where brought in the 9th Circuit federal court by a French citizen.

Art Restitution Claims Resolved and Acquisitions Negotiated:

• The Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University Art Gallery, Detroit Institute of Arts, SFMOMA, Art Dealer/Galleries and Private Collectors: Since 1995, Mr. Stauber has led international provenance investigations in Europe and the U.S., interviewed, deposed, and negotiated with Holocaust survivors, their heirs, and representatives, and counseled museum directors, major boards of trustees, foundations, gallery owners, general counsels, and private collectors, resulting in groundbreaking resolutions and acquisitions involving artworks and cultural property alleged confiscated by the Nazis during World War II or cultural property unlawfully exported or imported from its source country into the U.S. He has also negotiated and facilitated the acquisition or loans of major international artworks and artifacts for numerous institutions and collectors.

Criminal Defense & Pro Bono Work

Defense trial counsel on cases ranging from attempted murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking, sexual assault, defamation, 1st Amendment, and death penalty post-trial conviction appeal. Obtained numerous jury trial acquittals.

Speaking Engagements

• “Title Disputes in Art Transactions and Their Effect on Estate Plans,” Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning
• “A Fiduciary’s Nightmare in the Disposition of Personal Property,’ Hawaii Tax Institute
• “WWII Art Repatriation Claims & What Role for the U.S. Courts,” Federal Bar Council
• International Bar Association, Wealth Transfer Practice
• College Art Association Annual Conference, Art Claims
• American Association of Museums Annual Conference, Tax-Exempt Financing for Museum Projects
• ALI-ABA Legal Problems in Museum Administration

Admissions

Mr. Stauber is admitted to practice and has presented and argued cases in California and New York as well as the U.S. courts of appeals for the Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, and Federal circuits.

Education

University of Wisconsin Law School, cum laude
University of Dayton, B.S., Finance, with honors