Over the past 23 years of practice, Tom Selby has concentrated his practice in two (usually) distinct areas: patent litigation and professional liability defense.
He is the former Co-Chair of the firm’s Patent Litigation practice group working on patent and licensing litigation.
Over that same period Tom has represented national accounting firms in dozens of major trial, arbitration, investigatory and regulatory matters.
Tom served as a member of Williams & Connolly's Executive Committee from 2020-2022.
On the patent side, Tom has represented clients in intellectual property disputes over software, biotech, pharmaceutical, medical device and communications technologies. He has served as lead counsel in patent or licensing matters for Pfizer, Medtronic, Dropbox, Danaher, Envista Entities, and others. Tom has been recognized by LMG Life Sciences as a “Life Science Star” since 2015. Beginning in 2016, Tom has been recognized as a “Leading Patent Practitioner in Litigation (DC)” by IAM Patent 1000 with the most recent edition noting that Tom “crosses technical divides with agility and litigates life sciences and high-technology cases.” Managing Intellectual Property has recognized Tom as an “IP Star” since 2019 and has also been listed in Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers Magazine under the category of Intellectual Property Litigation.
The other major focus of his practice is accountants’ liability: for more than a decade, Tom has represented a national audit and accounting firm in over 40 litigation and regulatory matters. Tom has handled litigation, arbitration, and regulatory matters involving GAAP and GAAS disputes, tax services, securities, non-competition, and employment/whistleblower issues. Tom has represented accountants and auditors in investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, Department of Justice, the federal Office of Inspector General, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the United States Congress.
In his pro bono practice, Tom represents families separated at the border in asylum matters before US immigration authorities. He has tried a felony criminal trial in the District of Columbia in which the jury returned a not guilty verdict on all counts, and handled matters through the firm’s partnership with the Montgomery County Public Defender’s office, including an additional criminal jury trial. He represents a client on Louisiana’s death row in post-conviction proceedings, and successfully represented an inmate in habeas corpus proceedings appealed from the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Tom was born and raised in Austin, Texas, and graduated from the University of Chicago in 1990. Between college and law school, Tom spent six years working in Texas state and local government and politics. Tom received his J.D., with honors, from The University of Texas School of Law, where he was a member of the Texas Law Review and the American Journal of Criminal Law. He joined Williams & Connolly in 1999.
Tom lives in Arlington, Virginia with his wife, Deirdre Doyle. Their son is a student at the University of Virginia, and their daughter holds two degrees from UVA and is a school teacher in New York.