About Tom Foley
Tom Foley is a trial attorney concentrating on employment disputes. He grew up in Iowa City and received both his B.B.A. (with honors, 1982) and his J.D. (with high distinction, 1985) from the University of Iowa. He was admitted to the Iowa Bar in January 1986. He spent 33 years practicing in Des Moines, 24 of them at Nyemaster, Goode, the largest law firm in Iowa, where he represented employers in labor and employment matters.
In 2010 he switched to representing individual employees, and in 2017 he returned to eastern Iowa and joined RSH Legal in August 2019. He handles discrimination, wrongful termination, non-compete and trade secret disputes, and university tenure cases. He is a certified mediator specializing in employment disputes. Best Lawyers in America recognized him in Employment and Labor from 2007 to 2018 and again in 2023, and he was named Lawyer of the Year for Employment and Labor in Des Moines (2013, 2016) and Cedar Rapids (2018).
Proven verdicts and settlements at RSH Legal
These results are credited to RSH Legal. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.
Cedar Rapids' insurer paid $8 million to Jerime Mitchell, a quadriplegic man shot by Officer Lucas Jones during a 2016 traffic stop, in what attorneys described as the largest police-misconduct settlement in Iowa history.
A Waterloo man lost all feeling below the waist after a cervical radiofrequency ablation at the C5-6 level in December 2014. A Black Hawk County jury found Dr. Ashar Afzal and Cedar Valley Medical Specialists negligent and awarded $7.36 million to him and his wife. The Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed in 2021.
Ross Hall died after what his family alleged was negligent cardiology care. The jury awarded $5,500,000, and the allocation is the striking part: only $250,000 for his own pain and suffering before death, and the remaining $5.25 million to his widow and three children for what they lost.
A Black Hawk County jury awarded $1.8 million to Massachusetts sound engineer Frank Sgambellone after a State of Iowa forklift operator ran over his ankle during post-concert teardown at the UNI-Dome in February 2016.
A Cerro Gordo County jury found Good Shepherd, a Mason City nursing home, negligent and willful and wanton in its care of an 84-year-old dementia resident who lost 43 pounds and died of dehydration in April 2015. It awarded her four children $150,000 in compensatory and $750,000 in punitive damages. The Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed in 2018.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
Practice areas
Education
Bar admissions & credentials
Other attorneys at RSH Legal
View firm →
