Thomas R. Schmuhl [ Partner ]
Duane Morris LLP
30 South 17th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103-4196
USA
Phone: 215.979.1272
Fax: 215.979.1020
Email:
TRSchmuhl@duanemorris.com
Thomas R. Schmuhl focuses his practice on international law, financial restructuring, and corporate finance. He is former chair of Multilaw, a worldwide association of law firms in more than 50 countries comprising more than 5,000 lawyers. He is also the co-chair of the firm's International Practice Group. Mr. Schmuhl has handled legal matters involving more than 60 countries.
He is a member of the International and Inter-Pacific bar associations, the Union Internationale des Avocats and the American Foreign Law Association.
He is a 1971 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Johns Hopkins University.
Representative Matters
- A variety of special, confidential matters including the rendering of advice to the government of a foreign nation.
- Mr. Schmuhl represents corporate and governmental clients in complex commercial and financial transactions on local, national and international levels. He has handled matters for clients involving more than sixty countries throughout the world. A number of corporations from other countries rely on him as their principal lawyer and coordinator of legal affairs in the United States. Matters he has handled include public and private corporate financings; corporate counseling; mergers and acquisitions; Eurobond issues; international joint ventures; international arbitrations; public investment; bond issues; and investment company and mutual fund matters.
- Specific matters in which he has been involved include:
- Multi-billion dollar international workout and restructuring of an Irish-based aircraft leasing group
- Conrail's divestiture of its passenger service assets to transit agencies throughout the northeastern United States
- Service as counsel to the independent trustees of investment companies
- Default crisis of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (1976)
- Litigation against the Government of Iran before the International Claims Tribunal at the Hague
- Organization and international capital financing of a financial services company, including broker-dealer and investment advisory operations, with more than $12 billion under management
- Rendering advice in a confidential matter to the government of a foreign nation
- Conceiving the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority and developing its format and foundations, which resolved the potential bankruptcy of the City of Philadelphia
Professional Activities
- Multilaw
- Chairman, 2000-2003
- Mr. Schmuhl was the only American ever to serve as chairman of Multilaw and he became the second recipient of the organization's Hawley Award in 2003
- Executive Council Member, 1990-present
- Management Committee Member, 1994-present - International Bar Association
- Union Internationale des Avocats
- Inter-Pacific Bar Association
- American Foreign Law Association
- American Bar Association
- Pennsylvania Bar Association
- National Association of Bond Lawyers
- Vice Chairman, Committee on General Obligation Bonds, 1979-1981 - Pennsylvania Association of Bond Lawyers
- Philadelphia Bar Association
Admissions
- Pennsylvania
- United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
- United States Supreme Court
Education
- University of Pennsylvania Law School, J.D., 1971
- The Johns Hopkins University, A.B. and M.A., 1968
Editor, University of Pennsylvania Law Review)

